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Sunday, May 12, 2024
NEWS  |  CAMPUS

New charges brought on graduate student in shooting

The charges against Ghanan graduate student Kofi Adu-Brempong have been changed to one count of second-degree aggravated assault and one count of third-degree resisting arrest with violence.

Initially, the 35-year-old faced charges of one count of third-degree aggravated assault and five counts of third-degree resisting arrest with violence.

The changed charges were announced in a supplementary police report that was released Friday to provide a more detailed case for probable cause, the report said.

The following is a summary of the entire case as it appears in the supplementary report.

On Monday, March 1, one day before the incident, university police visited Adu-Brempong at his apartment in Corry Village at the request of Peter Waylen, Adu-Brempong's faculty adviser in the geography department.

Adu-Brempong had been mentally unstable for nearly a year, Waylen said, and he was acting delusional. Adu-Brempong had been sending "troubling" e-mails to students and staff at UF, Waylen said.

For nearly two and half hours, university police, Waylen and UF crisis intervention counselor Laura Templeton spoke with Adu-Brempong. They determined that he did not qualify to be committed under the Baker Act, a provision that, if carried out, would have likely sent Adu-Brempong to be involuntarily examined by a mental health professional.

Though, the Baker Act was not invoked, university police began to patrol Corry Village more heavily than usual.

The next day, about 8:17 p.m., university police were sent to Corry Village in response to screams coming from inside Adu-Brempong's apartment.

Officers on the scene heard Adu-Brempong shout that he would shoot them. He also screamed about the devil.

Waylen was brought to the apartment, where he was able to talk with his student through a broken bedroom window.

While Waylen and UPD officer Stacy Ettel talked with Adu-Brempong, through the window, other officers used a master key to unlock the front door, which only opened a few inches because the chain lock was attached.

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When Adu-Brempong heard the door, he ran from the bedroom to close it, and shouted, "You cannot come in here."

Knowing that Adu-Brempong was disabled, the officers were surprised at how quickly he moved to close the door.

For the next hour and a half, Adu-Brompong pasted notes that said "Get back before God strikes you dead!!!" on all the apartment windows. He occasionally shouted at the officers.

After Adu-Brempong fell silent for an extended period of time, the officers began to believe that he may have committed suicide.

Five police officers then broke down the front door and found Adu-Brempong sitting on the floor beside a sofa. He had an 8- to 10-inch-long butcher knife on his lap and a 24- to 30-inch-long gray rectangular bar in his hand.

The officers commanded Adu-Brempong to put down his weapons and show his hands. He did not move his hands, but smiled at the officers.

After several futile verbal attempts to get Adu-Brempong to comply, officer William Sasser shot him with a Taser. The Taser malfunctioned and had no affect. Adu-Brempong appeared to be shaking and laughing.

As Sasser fired a second, ineffective round, Adu-Brempong stood up and began to walk toward the officers while still holding the metal rod.

Sergeant William Ledger then shot Adu-Brempong with several bean bags from a shotgun. The bean bags were also ineffective.

As Adu-Brempong raised the bar over his head in an attempt to hit Ledger, officer Keith Smith shot Adu-Brempong in the head.

Adu-Brempong then collapsed to the floor, but continued to struggle against the officers until medical personnel arrived to take him to Shands at UF.

Adu-Brempong remains at Shands under the custody of the Alachua County Department of Jail.

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