Ghanaian student who was shot by police tells of his ordeal

University of Florida doctoral student Kofi Adu-Brempong said Tuesday from his hospital bed that university police should have never entered his campus apartment March 2, and suggested that he didn't pose a threat before an officer shot him in the face.

"They didn't have any business coming into my home," Adu-Brempong said in his first interview since the shooting, straining to speak through a jaw wired shut because of his injuries. "I wasn't doing anything to anybody."


Adu-Brempong's family posted his bail Tuesday to avoid him being transferred from the hospital to the Alachua County jail. The move meant detention officers standing guard outside his hospital room left their post, allowing his sister-in-law, niece and others to visit him for the first time in the four weeks since the shooting.


Communicating at times through writing because he had difficulty talking, Adu-Brempong described a series of events that differed from police reports. While police reported that he swung a metal rod at an officer before being shot, Adu-Brempong wrote that he was alarmed when they entered and picked up a rod from a broken computer desk when the shooting started.


"If you come to my room with guns, am I not the one who should feel threatened?" he wrote.


Adu-Brempong, a 35-year-old doctoral student and teaching assistant in geography from Ghana, faces charges of aggravated assault on an officer and resisting an officer with violence in the incident. The charges meant he's officially been a jail inmate and the county was responsible for his hospital stay and guards, which the jail estimates has cost at least $290,000.

Adu-Brempong wrote that he has had a "terrible" experience since the shooting, including being shackled to his bed at the Shands Cancer Hospital. He wrote that, despite the fact that he has polio, which makes walking difficult and requires him to use a cane, his legs were shackled when he went to the bathroom.


His sister-in-law, Cynthia Agyemang, said she plans to move him to a long-care facility as soon as today. She said the family posted the $10,000 bail to avoid his move to the jail due to concerns that his health would worsen there.


"We didn't want him to go there and suffer," she said.


Adu-Brempong has a bullet lodged near his spine and is wearing a neck brace to prevent movement that could cause paralysis. The shooting destroyed the roof of his mouth, severed part of his tongue and destroyed most of his jaw, according to his family. His hand is bandaged from injuries; Adu-Brempong said he's unsure whether the hand was struck by a bullet.


Police have reported that Adu-Brempong had been acting delusional leading up to the shooting, sending e-mail to his fellow students suggesting that they were part of a plot to kill him. Police reported that officers came to his apartment because of reports of screaming, bursting into the apartment by breaking the door when they lost communication with him and feared he might have killed himself.

Police reported that officers first tried to subdue him with a Taser that failed to attach and then fired bean bags at him using a shotgun, before shooting him with a rifle. Adu-Brempong said he kept telling officers that he was OK and to go away, and he questioned why they didn't tell him he was under arrest or take other actions.


"They should have told me to put up my hands," he said.


The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the incident. UF plans for internal investigations and a review by an outside firm. UF students protested the shooting in a March 16 rally and marched through campus.


On Tuesday, Adu-Brempong wrote a message for those who have taken interest in the case.


"To all of you who have been praying for me and seeking justice for me: I say God bless you all," he wrote. "I sincerely appreciate your efforts and concern."