Georgia State student killed in apartment

Maj. Ke​ith Meadows, at the scene, said, "it looks like the victim had some guests and one of them got overly aggressive."

Shortly after 9:30 p.m., Meadows said Fiandt, 20, was found shot dead just outside his loft apartment.

"One of his roommates heard a struggle at the door and came out to check," Meadows said. "The roommate heard a gunshot, and ran back into his room."

No suspects have been identified, but witnesses told detectives that two black men in their 20s, wearing dark clothing were seen fleeing the building, police said.

Investigators believe Fiandt was shot while struggling with at least one of the two men described, Meadows said.

No motive is known, but a small amount of marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms were found in the apartment and police have not ruled out the possibility that drugs played a part in the shooting.

"We have some information that the victim might have been selling marijuana," Meadows said.

Fiandt was a sophomore majoring in marketing, Georgia State spokeswoman Andrea Jones said Thursday.

A woman living in the building said Fiandt lived with three roommates in a plush three-bedroom loft apartment in the live-and-work development, just blocks east of Georgia State's campus.

The high-end Pencil Factory apartments sit across the street from where the Grady Homes housing projects once stood, and boast kitchens with granite counter tops, "Roman" tubs with separate showers, hardwood or concrete floors, and three-bedroom lofts -- like the one where the victim lived -- that rent for around $2,000 a month.

Investigators were questioning three individuals just before midnight Wednesday night as police closed down the crime scene.

Georgia State student Shane Hammond, 20, has lived in the Pencil Factory building since August, when he transferred to the downtown university from Young Harris College.

"I've never had any problems," the junior psychology major told the AJC Thursday morning. "I've heard about a couple of cars broken into, but I've never actually seen anything suspicious or felt unsafe at all."

Hammond estimated that about 20 to 30 Georgia State students live in the building.

"It's actually a fairly quiet place," he said.

He called Wednesday night's shooting "a little unsettling. It's not really surprising, but it hits close to home."

Hammond said that he and his roommates would not likely alter their routines in the wake of the shooting.

"We always keep our door locked and try not to be out in the parking garages and  just hanging around late at night."

"It's scary, but it's downtown Atlanta," said Georgia State junior Taylor Bone, another resident of the building.

"Unfortunately, none of this suprises me very much," Bone said. "My mom lives in Florida and she saw ‘Pencil Factory' and lost her mind, so she called me up."

Bone, who has lived in the Pencil Factory since September, said he has "lived in four apartment complexes downtown and this is by far the safest one, because they have three security officers on duty all the time."

Sulu Jaffer runs the Intown Market, in the Pencil Factory complex at the corner of Decatur and Grant streets.

He said the building's occupancy is about 40 percent students and the rest young professionals and families.

Jaffer said Thursday morning that he was shocked to learn about the shooting that occurred less than 12 hours earlier.

"This area certainly went through some gentrification, and we have a decent caliber of people that live here and shop here, so that is shocking," Jaffer said. "An area south of here is still a little shady, but this area seems to be doing pretty well."

Jaffer said he will be "a little more cautious" after the shooting.

Staff writer Mike Morris and photographer John Spink contributed to this article.