Students question campus safety after co-ed killed

CAU president Carlton E. Brown said there will be no visitors at campus housing. Extra campus and Atlanta Police officers have also been called in, Brown said.

Police questioned one witness at Grady Hospital on Thursday. The witness was taken to the hospital after being chased down and beaten by bystanders who saw the shooting, investigators said. Police said the witness is cooperating with investigators.

“He has some knowledge about what was going on,” Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington said. “We can’t say he’s the suspect. We can’t say if he was the actual triggerman. He’s a person of interest.”

The swarm of police on Thursday didn’t comfort the students who were left mourning their friend and scared for their safety. Dozens of students complained of slow response times from police at a town hall meeting at CAU.

“Look at the area we’re near,” said Loneia Powell, a 20-year-old Clark Atlanta junior from Columbus. “It happens all the time.”

Campus officials insist CAU is safe and the shooting is unusual.

“The challenges that led to this incident are no different from the ones that have recently been recorded at Georgia Tech and Georgia State,” Brown said. “The matters we are addressing are similiar to matters that many urban univerisites address. These remain safe places to be. while the risk is not great, the benefits certainly are.”

In May, a Georgia Tech student and a Georgia State student were wounded after being shot in separate armed robberies.

But Lynn is the first student in Atlanta killed by gunfire this school year.

The 19-year-old was “walking southbound on James P. Brawley when she was struck in the chest by a stray round from a group of individuals involved in a physical altercation on Mitchell Street,” Atlanta police Lt. Keith Meadows said.

Meadows said a friend walking with Lynn “actually heard the gunshots, actually saw the weapon and told her to get on the ground. Before she was able to get on the ground, she was struck in the chest.”

Jerome Jones, an 18-year-old student from Clark Atlanta, was also wounded when he was struck in the wrist by a stray bullet, Meadows said. Clark Atlanta officials said Jones was treated at a local hospital and released.

It’s too early to say if the shooting was gang-related, Pennington said. “All we know is there were some people arguing. It all started out as a result of a fight,” he said.

Anthony Miller, 20, was walking with Lynn and some friends when they saw a group of men fighting. One of the men had a gun in his pants, Miller said.

The man with the gun ran around the corner, west of James P. Brawley and started shooting behind him, Miller said.

“Jasmine was like ‘duck’,” Miller recalled Thursday afternoon.

She squatted down just as Miller heard a bullet hit the ground.

“It bounced past me and I looked up. She was hit,” said Miller, a student at Atlanta Technical College.

Miller’s girlfriend was good friends with Lynn. She had just braided his hair on Wednesday, Miller said.

Atlanta Police officials will meet Friday morning with campus security, like the force did after the recent assaults near the Georgia Tech campus, Pennington said.

“This is so very tragic for a young student to be walking down the street and be hit by random gunfire,” Pennington said. “We’re going to spend as much resources as possible to solve this case.”

Danays Marquez, a Morris Brown College freshman from Miami, said she heard “at least five [gunshots], back to back.”

Marquez said she walked up to Lynn, who was lying on the ground.

“She was drenched in blood and it looked like she was taking her last breath,” Marquez said. “It’s sad, because people are here trying to get education, and you’ve got to constantly be on the lookout because you’re scared somebody’s dying or you’re getting shot yourself.”

Meadows said that detectives “don’t have a clear description on the shooter itself. We are working with university officials in an effort to develop security footage.”

“At this point, we have not been able to determine the nature of the altercation on Mitchell Street, however, we are questioning a number of witnesses,” Meadows said. “We have not been able to determine whether any of the individuals involved in the physical altercation were actually students from Clark Atlanta or any of the surrounding colleges.”

Clarence Alexander, a freshman at Morehouse, said he was walking near the dorms early Thursday when he saw a “commotion.”

“I thought it was Morehouse football players verses non-students,” he said.

Alexander went back to his dorm and found a flier from his resident assistant. The note read:

“Due to the shooting at CAU, all residence halls will be on lockdown until further notice. No one is to leave the building without notifying your RA or RD. Visitors will not be allowed to enter the building.”

The area has had some problems with safety, especially at Clark Atlanta, where the campus is more open than the gated streets of Spelman and Morehouse.

Brown said the campus has been actively looking to close the open segments of James P. Brawley Drive.

“Ours has been a fairly open campus,” Brown said. “It’s a major connection point for many schools in Atlanta. Ninety-nine percent of the time that’s a beautiful thing.”

Two weeks ago, two men were shot - one fatally - in a private home near campus. The home is used for student housing.

In July, CAU officers shot an armed man during a confrontation about three blocks from the campus entrance.

Atlanta Police crime reports show 25 incidents reported at the university complex from July 1 to Aug. 18, including four aggravated assaults and four armed robberies. One of the robberies occurred on James P. Brawley.

Powell said it’s not unusual to hear gunshots near the campus. She said she relies on campus security or Atlanta police for safety, “but walking from MARTA, you don’t see many cops in that area. It’s scary.”

Another Clark Atlanta student, Phyllis Shelman, said Thursday morning that news of the overnight shooting was “very disheartening.”

“We’re at a place to learn,” she said. “We should bring up the issue of safety on campus. More security or something should be done.”

Shelman, a 21-year-old senior, said that she thought security around Atlanta’s college campuses should be an issue in the upcoming mayoral race.

“I think that’s one of the many issues that’s plaguing Atlanta,” she said. “The candidates sometimes forget about college students because they realize we come from different areas and they know that we’re not going to vote” in the mayoral race.

Shelman, whose dorm is adjacent to the shooting scene, said she was about to go to bed when she heard the gunshots. She watched the ensuing events unfold out her dorm window.

“I’m from Washington, D.C., and we have our issues with crime, too, but it was just weird to see it right there in front of you,” she said.

According to Lynn’s Myspace page, the 19-year-old sophomore was majoring in psychology and minoring in business. Lynn, of Kansas City, Mo., was a 2008 graduate of Lincoln College Preparatory Academy in Kansas City.

“She was very fun and bubbly, always making a lot jokes,” said Sydney Robinson, a senior at Spelman. “Anybody that you ask would say the same thing about her. She didn’t come here for this.”

The Spelman College flag flew at half mast Thursday in Lynn’s honor.

“On behalf of the entire Spelman College community, I want to express our deepest sympathy to Jasmine’s family and friends,” Spelman president Beverly Daniel Tatum said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with them at this time of grief.”

Both Clark Atlanta and Spelman are providing grief counselors to students who need to talk about Lynn’s death, administrators said. Spelman is leaving its chapel open for students to hold prayer services.

“Our students are resilient,” said Aristede Collins, CAU’s vice president for institutional advancement. “We want to let them to share. Not what happened, but what they feel.”

Spelman has also added a memorial page to its website for students to comment.

Staff Reporters Mike Morris, Bill Rankin, Mashaun D. Simon and staff photographer John Spink contributed to this article.