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Thursday, March 28, 2024
NEWS  |  CAMPUS

International student in Tuesday shooting is in critical condition

Editor's note: The official UPD police report can be found in the sidebar of this article.

Ghanan graduate student Kofi Adu-Brempong is now in critical condition and under custody of the Alachua County Department of Jail, said Alachua County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Steve Maynard Thursday morning.

Adu-Brempong's location was not confirmed by Maynard, but anonymous sources maintain he was taken to Shands at UF.

Criminal charges are not expected for the five university police officers who were involved in the incident, said Spencer Mann, a representative for the state attorney's office.

"I know of no reason why they would press charges against the officers," Mann said.

The state attorney is still determining how to handle the six charges against Kofi Adu-Brempong, he said.

University officials, campus police and Corry Village apartment managers held two meetings Wednesday with about 75 residents to explain Tuesday's shooting of a graduate student in his apartment.

A UF Ph.D. student and geography assisant, Kofi Adu-Brempong, was shot by university police with an assault rifle Tuesday night at his apartment across from the Levin College of Law.

According to University Police Department Capt. Jeff Holcomb, the 35-year-old student was shot after an hour-and-a-half standoff with UPD officers .

A representative from Shands at UF reported having no record of a patient by the name Adu-Brempong, where police said he was taken for treatment.

According to an anonymous source, Adu-Brempong checked into the hospital under a fake name. But Shands nursing coordinator Doug Wallace said he was "under command" not to comment on a possible false identity.

At Wednesday's meeting, police told residents Adu-Brempong was not critically injured, according to fellow Corry Village resident Ivan Martinez.

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Martinez, a graduate student, was in his apartment nearby when he heard shouting.

"I looked out the window and saw about 100 cop cars," he said. "I was smart enough to stay inside."

The cop cars Martinez saw were the result of a neighbor's phone call about screaming from Adu-Brempong's apartment.

After negotiating with him through the door, police forced their way into the apartment and were attacked by Adu-Brempong, who came at police with a knife and pipe, according to Holcomb.

"We didn't know if there was anybody else in the room with him," Holcomb said. "All we heard were the screams."

Martinez said police used an AR-15, an assault rifle, instead of a 9mm pistol because the rifle's bullets couldn't go through the drywall and hurt people in surrounding apartments.

Adu-Brempong, who contracted the polio virus when he was three or four years old, walks with a cane, according to an interview with him conducted last semester.

Holcomb said all non-lethal measures were taken to protect the student and police resorted to gunfire only after using a Taser on him several times and firing bean bag rounds failed to subdue Adu-Brempong.

UPD visited Adu-Brempong at his apartment the day before the shooting after Professor Peter Waylen told police the T.A. had been acting delusional, Holcomb said.

Adu-Brempong was scheduled to give a presentation on Thursday, and the pressure got to him, Waylen said in a police report.

When officers visited Adu-Brempong at his apartment Monday, he told them he was fine, according to the report.

When a crisis counselor was asked to get involved, Adu-Brempong called 911 because he did not believe the visiting officers were police.

The report concluded after the visit Monday that Adu-Brempong, who has a wife and a daughter, did not show any signs of wanting to hurt himself or others.

The eight to 10 residents evacuated from Corry Village returned home Wednesday, Holcomb said.

Adu-Brempong now faces five charges of resisting arrest and one charge of aggravated assault, according to Holcomb.

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