UGA professor sought for three murders

[JonInMiddleGA]

UGA professor suspected in deadly Athens shooting | ajc.com (http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2009/04/25/uga_professor_shooting.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab)

A manhunt is on in Athens for a University of Georgia professor accused of shooting and killing three people.

Police are looking for George M. Zinkhan III, a professor in the Department of Marketing and Distribution.

He is a 57-year-old white male, last seen wearing a polo shirt and blue shorts, according to the UGA Web site. He may be traveling in a red car.

The shooting happened about 2 p.m. at or near the Athens Community Theatre off Prince Avenue near downtown. Clarke County coroner Sonny Wilson confirmed the deaths, but did not know the ages or gender of the victims.

A man outside the shooting scene said his son was a witness to the slayings.

John Hardy of Conyers said his son, Matt Hardy, was standing next to one of the victims. John Hardy says his son told him that the victim, Tom Tanner, was shot twice — once in the front and the back.

John Hardy said Matt Hardy, who lives in Athens, was a friend of Tanner’s. His son was being questioned by Athens police as of 3:15.

“At 22 you’re not supposed to watch people die,” said John Hardy.

The University of Georgia sent a text alert to students saying that a UGA professor is a suspect in an off-campus shooting in the Prince Avenue area.

Zinkhan, who earned a doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1981, came to UGA in spring 1994 from the University of Houston.


I'll point out that his recent direct boss (once removed) lives two houses to the left of me while his big boss lives right across the street from me. Needless to say, the doors are locked tight & the alarm is on. They can't electrocute you but one time, so we'll just watch the draft until he's in custody in case he's figuring he might as well take out more than three victims.

Just a bizarre sounding story.

[Buccaneer]

Motive?

[DeToxRox]

Motive?

Probably was pissed Stafford got taken by Detroit.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Motive?

Anything would be pure speculation at this point.

Kind of sad that the college newspaper is doing a better job of coverage than anybody else. Had pictures of the scene no one else has had, already interviewed a student in class with the guy on Thursday, and made specific reference to the event scheduled for tonight where the shooting took place.

The Red and Black (http://www.redandblack.com/news/2009/04/24/News/Professor.On.The.Loose.Suspected.In.Saturday.Afternoon.Shooting.On.Prince.Avenue-3726106.shtml)

[JonInMiddleGA]

IF the information from the Red & Black is accurate, one of the shooting victims was the shooters wife. All three of those killed were part of a community theater group, a set designer,a set designer/actor, and the president of the theater group who was a local attorney "who was married to Zinkhan" (not clear whether that means she was a current wife or an ex-wife)

The Red and Black (http://media.www.redandblack.com/media/storage/paper871/news/2009/04/24/News/Victims.All.Members.Of.Local.Community.Theater-3726153.shtml)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Now being identified as his current wife.
From ajc.com
Capt. Clarence Holeman of the Athens-Clarke County Police Dept. said investigators interviewed 20 witnesses. He said an argument between the suspect, who was well known to the theatre group, and an unidentified man immediately preceded the shootings.

According to Holeman, witnesses told police that Zinkhan left the event and returned a few minutes later with two handguns. He fired both guns, Holeman said, and afterward walked away, got in a car and drove off.

Holeman said three cars are registered to Zinkhan, and police were searching for all three. He warned the public to be on alert.

“At high level of threat for anyone who comes into contact with him,” said Holeman.

Adams said after the shootings, Zinkhan apparently took both children to another neighbor’s home.

“He said he had an emergency,” Adams said Saturday evening. Police questioned neighbors on the street.

The two children are now in policy custody, Holeman said.

[Recoil]

Nothing surprises me from the Cesspool anymore.

How about the 8 year old physically attacking his teacher this past week?

[M GO BLUE!!!]

At least he didn't kill the kids.

[JonInMiddleGA]

At least he didn't kill the kids.

I think that may be one of the biggest surprises to me about this, a very unexpected silver lining (or something, you know what I mean)

The outcome of cases like this (or rather, the ones we hear about) is usually pretty predictable but him dropping the kids off at a neighbor's house is way out of the norm.

[BYU 14]

I think that may be one of the biggest surprises to me about this, a very unexpected silver lining (or something, you know what I mean)

The outcome of cases like this (or rather, the ones we hear about) is usually pretty predictable but him dropping the kids off at a neighbor's house is way out of the norm.

+1 and thank God the kids are OK. People are just going crazy lately!

[kcchief19]

I think that may be one of the biggest surprises to me about this, a very unexpected silver lining (or something, you know what I mean)

The outcome of cases like this (or rather, the ones we hear about) is usually pretty predictable but him dropping the kids off at a neighbor's house is way out of the norm.
Sadly that is way out of the norm. The norm for this type of story is also that the gun is eventually turned on himself. Any expectation that they will find him alive?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Sadly that is way out of the norm. The norm for this type of story is also that the gun is eventually turned on himself. Any expectation that they will find him alive?

Maybe. They seem to think (for some unspecified reason) that he may either be headed toward Austin, TX where he has relatives or to Amsterdam where has a house after being a part-time professor. Doesn't seem likely he could get out of the country unless he did a good bit of pre-planning but right now they do seem to think he's on the move somewhere.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Motorists in several states may see a new digital billboard soon as the search for triple murder suspect George Zinkhan continues. The outdoor advertising association offered to donate space this week and groups & companies in Kansas, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Arizona, and New Mexico have followed suit.

http://images.morris.com/images/athens/mdControlled/cms/2009/05/01/435218240.jpg

Meanwhile as details emerge, it appears likely to have been a domestic situation gone very bad. The FBI says information points to his wife wanting a divorce in the weeks leading up to the shooting. The first victim (the 40 y/o) was gunned down outside the front door of the community theater, then the wife who was just inside the door, and finally the 63 y/o man who reportedly stepped between the shooter & the fleeing crowd inside (which included the first victim's wife & young child who were apparently standing next to Marie Bruce when she was killed) confronting him in order to block his path further into the building.

[Ben E Lou]

Car found in Athens.

The Red and Black (http://media.www.redandblack.com/media/storage/paper871/news/2009/05/01/News/Zinkhans.Car.Found.In.Athens-3734493.shtml)

[Ben E Lou]

Kind of sad that the college newspaper is doing a better job of coverage than anybody else. +1

I can understand the AJC, but there's no excuse for the Banner-Herald to be getting their collective butts kicked by a bunch of college kids on the biggest non-football story to come out of Athens in recent memory.

[JonInMiddleGA]

but there's no excuse for the Banner-Herald to be getting their collective butts kicked by a bunch of college kids on the biggest non-football story to come out of Athens in recent memory.

No excuse but a pretty simple reason: it's a piss poorly run paper.

I suspect the R&B has more adult supervision than the ABH. And while I'm sure they would like to point to recent staff cutbacks as the problem, their issues with poor editing, proofreading, and fact checking pre-date the layoffs.

[Ben E Lou]

Gotcha. I've never really read anything other than sports stories in the ABH before this story, so I'm not terribly familiar with it.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Gotcha. I've never really read anything other than sports stories in the ABH before this story, so I'm not terribly familiar with it.

Heck, if you watch closely the sports section might be the worst of all with regard to getting little details right. It was appalling how often even game scores would be wrong in their locally written copy, with the Saturday morning high school stuff getting to the point of a weekly occurrence. Stories with two different players scoring a "game-winning touchdown" were among my favorites. Second place probably goes to instance where my 10 year old had a better understanding of the h.s. playoff possibilities than the new sports editor ... when the column was about how much he knew about the high school scene in Georgia !

[GrantDawg]

So, has the jeep been there all along and they just found it, or did he just recently dump it? It would be hard to believe he has stayed in the area this whole time, but he might be hiking it.

[JonInMiddleGA]

So, has the jeep been there all along and they just found it, or did he just recently dump it? It would be hard to believe he has stayed in the area this whole time, but he might be hiking it.

Nobody seems to know for sure, or even have a strong opinion that's been expressed so far.

[GrantDawg]

They are saying now they found the van by tracking one of his cell phones. They think he dumped it right after dropping off the kids. But where did he go from there, and how?

[GrantDawg]

Also interesting. They found the van last night at 11pm, and began searching the area in complete radio silence so that no one could track their movements by scanner.

[CU Tiger]

Missed this until now...one of the victims was a Clemson Economics professor....

[JonInMiddleGA]

Missed this until now...one of the victims was a Clemson Economics professor....

Yeah, he had fairly recently taken the job at Clemson after working at UGA for the Carl Vinson Institute of Government (basically a policy analysis group).

[Ben E Lou]

Searched called off. No sign of any blood in the vehicle. Dogs pick up no scent leading away from it. The authorities seem to believe that he put the vehicle in drive and let it roll down into the ravine shortly after dropping the kids off on Saturday. So maybe this whole thing was planned, and he had thought through his escape? Dump the vehicle in a place where it will take a long time to find it, so the focus remains on the red jeep while he is using some other mode of transportation...

[Chief Rum]

Hmm, weird thing about this story, again with the kids. Dropping the kids off speaks to a rational mind. Not only does he correctly judge they are not at fault for whatever wrong he felt he was rectifying in his attack, but he is clearly was thinking out his escape after doing the deed (which also speaks to his knowledge of his own guilt, not that there is much doubt about that, see ya manslaughter possibility?). But if he really had it pre-planned, he wouldn't have dropped the kids off after the attack but before. Weird.

[Ben E Lou]

But if he really had it pre-planned, he wouldn't have dropped the kids off after the attack but before. Weird.Good point. Or maybe even that was part of the ruse? Make it look like he's making it up as he goes along so they think that he's done the obvious thing and is in his vehicle?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Good point. Or maybe even that was part of the ruse? Make it look like he's making it up as he goes along so they think that he's done the obvious thing and is in his vehicle?

I think the inconsistencies like this are part of what makes the planned vs spontaneous question so hard to answer. There's no shortage of speculation around here as you can imagine, but one of the possibilities that got tossed around by the peanut galleries this week is that he planned the shooting itself but that something changed (for example, he wasn't aware of the luncheon or something of that nature) and that he had to improvise some things on the fly. And it really does add to the challenge for police since the dots aren't really lining up to connect easily.

That even extends to the location where the vehicle was found, as there are apparently railroad tracks with regular traffic close by, leaving some to speculate whether he may have hopped a train & used that to get out of the area.

It really has the makings of an eventual "ripped from the headlines" episode of L&O or even a Lifetime weekly movie at some point, however insensitive an S.O.B. I might appear for saying so.

[GrantDawg]

His body has been found near where the jeep was found. He may have been there the whole time, but one officer said his body did not seem to be badly decomposed. Hmmm...

Zinkhan's body found | ajc.com (http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2009/05/09/body_found_near_zinkhan_car.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Zinkhan searches revealing | News | OnlineAthens.com (http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/052809/new_444462832.shtml)

Summarizing the story, details from the search warrants point to an affair between Zinkhan's wife and the younger professor as the motive for both the impending divorce that the killer had filed for as well as the eventual shootings.

As for the speculation about what he did or didn't have with him
Zinkhan fled and ditched the sport utility vehicle in a ravine in a wooded area in Western Clarke County. When police found the Jeep six days later, it held a folder of papers - one that referred to Tanner - and a map to a UGA professor's home in Watkinsville, according to a search warrant.

Police do not believe Zinkhan planned to harm the other professor.

Investigators also found Zinkhan's wallet with $51 in the Jeep, plus another $1,047 stuffed in pockets of a duffel bag, along with a Blackberry, a laptop computer, his passport and six spent shell casings from a .38-caliber revolver, one of the guns he fired at the Grady Avenue theater.