The officer was responding to a call that someone was breaking car windows on Fry and Oak streets, about two blocks away from the campus, just after 1am on Sunday, UNT spokeswoman Margarita Vanegas told the Dallas Morning News. When a man he found at the scene advanced on him with an axe, the officer opened fire.
At least three shots were fired, according to Bink Ruckthongsook, another UNT student who told KXAS-TV he heard the gunfire. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's office identified the victim as Ryan McMillan, who had just turned 21 the day before. He was a second-year transfer student from Fort Worth, according to UNT spokeswoman Kelley Reese.
A video provided to North Texas Daily, the university newspaper, shows a man matching McMillan's description walking through a parking garage, carrying an axe.
We just received raw video of the suspect from last night. pic.twitter.com/Dxy8iN2vnr
— North Texas Daily (@ntdaily) December 13, 2015
McMillan's friends were incredulous and angry at the news of his death. They say the mild-mannered and shy high school tennis player, nicknamed "Charlie Brown" by his teammates, was not aggressive by nature and believe the officer could have subdued him without deadly force.
"I can't really put into words how I feel about the fact that one of the nicest people I ever met was shot because an officer felt threatened," Matthew McDermott, McMillan's childhood friend, told the Dallas Morning News. "I want to drive to Denton and scream at the top of my lungs at the police department, but that's stupid and irrational. But it just really angers me."
Comment: Yet another tragic event that could have easily been avoided.