The State Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday that it has entered into an agreement to defer criminal prosecution against Kofi Adu-Brempong, the UF graduate student who was shot in the face by a UPD officer in March.
Under the agreement, the charges against Adu-Brempong would be dropped in three years if he continues to receive counseling for his mental health issues and agrees to take any medications prescribed to him. This is a big step in the right direction, but the case is far from closed.
We hope that Adu-Brempong will finish his doctorate work at UF, but we are more concerned about how this event will affect the rest of his time in Gainesville. Will he be allowed to teach again, or is he going to be shoved quickly through the program in the hopes that this controversy will finally die?
We are still waiting to hear UF’s plan to keep things like this from happening again. It would be nice if we knew there was some progress on that front, but as of now all the money that would fund mental health programs for students is being diverted to Student Government until further notice.
It might also be nice if we knew what UPD’s new plans for handling delicate situations like this will be. It was an explosive event that deserves some explosive answers. Instead we are stuck waiting for UF to conclude its own investigation and release its findings to the public. Most of all we are saddened by the impact this ordeal has had on Adu-Brempong and his family, and we hope this agreement gives them some peace.
