On Sunday, the Emory Police Department (EPD) arrested a convicted felon who had crossed state lines to come to the university’s campus amid protests. The man, identified as a 35-year-old from Statesville, North Carolina, was apprehended on the Emory Quad on Sunday afternoon while in possession of knives and a pepper spray canister.
Following the arrest, a search warrant was obtained for the individual's car, where authorities discovered an axe, a hatchet, and two knives in a bag containing survival gear. The suspect, Derek Zika, faced charges including criminal trespass, obstructing a law enforcement officer, possession of a weapon in a school safety zone, and crossing state lines with weapons, intoxicants, or drugs. Zika was subsequently transported to the Dekalb County Jail and later released on bail.
