{
  "id": "2009-04-25-university-of-georgia-zinkhan-shooting",
  "slug": "university-of-georgia-zinkhan-shooting-2009-04-25",
  "institution": {
    "name": "University of Georgia",
    "shortName": "UGA",
    "state": "GA",
    "type": "public-r1",
    "alertSystemName": "UGA Alert",
    "enrollment": 34500
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2009-04-25",
    "type": "shooting",
    "cleryCategory": "timely-warning",
    "headline": "Professor accused in fatal off-campus picnic shooting flees; found dead two weeks later",
    "headlinePublic": "Professor accused in fatal off-campus picnic shooting flees; found dead two weeks later",
    "summary": "At approximately 12:25 PM EDT on April 25, 2009, police said UGA marketing professor [George Zinkhan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Zinkhan) opened fire at a Town and Gown Players theater picnic outside the [Athens Community Theatre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Zinkhan), killing his wife Marie Bruce and two other men, Tom Tanner and Ben Teague. Zinkhan then fled the scene. UGA deployed its two-year-old UGA Alert system at 1:55 PM EDT, approximately 90 minutes after the shooting, to warn over 20,000 students, faculty, and staff that a named, pictured faculty suspect remained at large and was considered dangerous. The case exposed the legal ambiguity of Clery timely-warning obligations when a faculty member is accused of off-campus violence but may return to campus.",
    "outcome": "Zinkhan eluded a two-week national manhunt. On May 9, 2009, his body was found concealed in a shallow grave in a wooded area near Bogart, Georgia; police said he had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Three victims were killed: Marie Bruce, 47, an Athens attorney; Tom Tanner, 40, a Clemson University economist; Ben Teague, 63, a set designer.",
    "casualties": {
      "killed": 3,
      "injured": 2
    },
    "resolution": "confirmed-threat"
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "initial",
      "timestamp": "2009-04-25T13:55:00-04:00",
      "channel": "sms",
      "verbatimText": "UGA Professor George Zinkhan is a suspect in a shooting off campus. George Zinkhan is a white male in his mid 50s with a goattee or beard. Current information is that he was last seen wearing a polo shirt, blue shorts, and a backpack. He was last thought to be in a red car in the area of Prince Avenue. Use extreme caution if contact is made. Call 911 if you know his location. Please do not call 911 for information.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://swarthmorephoenix.com/2009/04/26/murder-suspect/",
      "sourceDescription": "The Phoenix (Swarthmore College), quoting UGA Alert verbatim from a student who received it",
      "annotations": [
        "Alert sent 90 minutes after the 12:25 PM EDT shooting; the delay reflected UGA police's need to confirm Zinkhan's identity as the suspect before naming him publicly",
        "Notably omits the word 'murder' or 'killed,' describing only 'a shooting off campus'",
        "Typo in original: 'goattee' (double-t) preserved as transmitted",
        "Sent via text message, email, and phone to over 20,000 students, faculty, and staff via the UGA Alert system, established in 2007 after Virginia Tech"
      ],
      "characterCount": 418
    },
    {
      "sequence": 2,
      "type": "follow-up",
      "timestampApprox": "Evening of April 25, 2009, after Zinkhan remained at large",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": false,
      "sourceDescription": "Reconstructed from CNN.com April 25, 2009 reporting on UGA's campus communications; exact wording of the follow-up email is not preserved in public sources",
      "annotations": []
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "George Zinkhan - Wikipedia",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Zinkhan",
      "type": "other"
    },
    {
      "title": "Georgia professor sought in shooting death of wife, two others - CNN",
      "url": "https://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/25/georgia.shootings/",
      "type": "national-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Police, Feds Hunt Georgia Professor After Picnic Shooting Kills Three - ABC News",
      "url": "https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=7439416&page=1",
      "type": "national-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Fifth year anniversary of shooting leaves many questions - Red and Black",
      "url": "https://www.redandblack.com/uganews/fifth-year-anniversary-of-shooting-leaves-many-questions/article_53742c6c-ccc5-11e3-9675-0017a43b2370.html",
      "type": "student-newspaper"
    },
    {
      "title": "George Zinkhan '74: Professor-turned-Murder Suspect - The Phoenix (Swarthmore)",
      "url": "https://swarthmorephoenix.com/2009/04/26/murder-suspect/",
      "type": "student-newspaper"
    },
    {
      "title": "National manhunt ends for former faculty member - UGA Today",
      "url": "https://news.uga.edu/national-manhunt-ends-for-former-faculty-member/",
      "type": "official-statement"
    }
  ],
  "context": "On April 25, 2009, [George Zinkhan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Zinkhan), a 57-year-old endowed marketing professor in UGA's Terry College of Business, attended a Town and Gown Players theater-group picnic at the Athens Community Theatre with his wife, Marie Bruce. Around 12:25 PM EDT, police said, he opened fire at the picnic, fatally shooting Tom Tanner, a Clemson University economist; Ben Teague, a set designer who tried to intervene; and his wife, Marie Bruce, an Athens attorney. Two bystanders were also wounded, and Zinkhan fled in a red car. UGA's emergency notification team faced an immediate dilemma: the incident was [off campus](https://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/25/georgia.shootings/), but a named armed UGA professor with offices on campus remained at large and was considered dangerous. Acting under the post-Virginia-Tech UGA Alert system established in 2007, officials transmitted a text-message alert at 1:55 PM EDT, 90 minutes after the shooting, to more than [20,000 students, faculty, and staff](https://www.redandblack.com/uganews/fifth-year-anniversary-of-shooting-leaves-many-questions/article_53742c6c-ccc5-11e3-9675-0017a43b2370.html); the alert omitted the word 'killed' and described only a shooting off campus. The ensuing [national manhunt](https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=7547295&page=1) lasted two weeks; Zinkhan's body was found May 9 in a self-dug grave. The case generated substantial debate in campus-safety circles about Clery timely-warning obligations when violence is committed off campus by a faculty member who remains a campus threat. The Athens Community Theatre is a private community venue, not university-owned or university-controlled property, so whether the shooting itself fell within Clery-reportable geography (a precondition for the 34 CFR 668.46(e) timely-warning duty) is a contested legal question rather than a settled one; this file's 'timely-warning' classification reflects the university's own institutional framing of the alert (as a warning about an at-large, potentially armed faculty member with campus access) rather than a definitive determination that Clery jurisdiction applied to the underlying crime scene.",
  "confidence": "medium",
  "tags": [
    "shooting",
    "faculty-perpetrator",
    "off-campus",
    "uga-alert",
    "fugitive",
    "murder",
    "domestic-violence",
    "post-virginia-tech",
    "2000s",
    "georgia"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-05-31",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-05-31",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}