Georgia professor sought in 3 killings near campus

ATHENS, Ga. - Authorities were on a nationwide manhunt for a University of Georgia professor in the shooting deaths of three people, including his ex-wife, yesterday at a community theater near campus.

Athens-Clarke County Police Capt. Clarence Holeman said authorities were searching for George Zinkhan, 57, who has been a marketing professor at the university in Athens since the 1990s.

Killed were Zinkhan's ex-wife, Marie Bruce, 47; Tom Tanner, 40; and Ben Teague, 63, Holeman said. Both men were involved with Town & Gown Players Inc., a theater group in Athens, about 70 miles east of Atlanta.

The shooting happened outside the Athens Community Theater during a midday gathering of the theater group. Holeman said the shooter left his two young children in the car when he opened fire on the group. A next-door neighbor of Zinkhan's in nearby Bogart said the professor later dropped off the children with him and left after saying there was an emergency. Police have since taken the children.

Shortly after the shootings, the university issued a campuswide alert as a precaution.

The theater group's performance last night of Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure was canceled. Tanner, who was among the dead, was to have played Dr. Watson.

County Coroner Sonny Wilson said the three victims were shot multiple times. Two people were injured by shrapnel.

Two guns were involved in the shooting, and neither was recovered, Holeman said.

Authorities issued a nationwide alert for Zinkhan and his red 2005 Jeep Liberty. Authorities learned that Zinkhan has a house in Amsterdam and were keeping a lookout at airports, Holeman said.

Police in Austin, Texas, have also been alerted because Zinkhan has family there, Holeman said.

Holeman said there had been a discussion, possibly a disagreement, between the shooter and one of the victims. Police said they received a call of a shooting at the theater about 12:25 p.m. Holeman said a motive was not immediately known.

Neighbor Robert Covington said Zinkhan dropped his son and daughter off at his house after noon. Zinkhan asked the Covingtons to watch the children for about an hour and left. Covington described Zinkhan and Bruce as still living together in the house.

Covington said that when he asked Zinkhan's daughter, who is about 10, about the emergency, "all she would relate to me was there was something about a firecracker."

Zinkhan has been a professor in the Terry College of Business, university spokesman Pete Konenkamp said. "His track record is impeccable as far as his teaching credentials," Konenkamp said.

Bruce was a well-respected lawyer in Athens who loved the theater and who recently directed a production of Trip to Bountiful, said Wesley Cook, who knew Bruce through the theater company.

Before joining the faculty at Georgia, Zinkhan held academic positions at the Universities of Houston and Pittsburgh. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1974.