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ATLANTA (AP) — A student killed on his college campus in central Georgia as he tried to help three female students was stabbed four times in the upper torso, an autopsy found.
Former student Joseph Anthony Scott is accused of stabbing freshman Donnell Phelps with a pocket knife with a 3 1/2-inch blade at Fort Valley State University, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent J.T. Ricketson told The Telegraph (bit.ly/1T3f0LM) in Macon.
The attack happened late Tuesday afternoon as students prepared for final exams.
Scott, 24, faces charges including murder and aggravated assault in the death of Phelps, 19, and an attack on a campus security officer.
The officer, Ernest Johnson, was stabbed seven times but is expected to survive, Ricketson said at a news conference Wednesday.
Police say Scott was harassing and groping three young women near the school cafeteria, and Phelps came to their aid by trying to intervene. Scott began stabbing Phelps, who collapsed on the ground near the school's infirmary and later died, police said.
Scott then ran toward the college's main gate and attacked Johnson, who was unaware that Phelps had been stabbed moments earlier, police said.
A university employee, Donavon Coley, separated Scott from the security officer and helped restrain him until police arrived, authorities said. After Scott was taken into custody, he kicked out a window of a campus police vehicle, Ricketson told the newspaper.
The freshman class planned a candlelight vigil to remember Phelps at 7 p.m. Thursday on the campus, about 30 miles southwest of Macon.
Phelps was an agriculture engineering technology student from nearby Marshallville, Georgia, who graduated from Macon County High School in 2015.
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