A British scientist was killed last weekend after being hit by a stray bullet in the American city of Atlanta. The University of Liège, where the man worked as a postdoctoral assistant, is reporting.
“It is with deep sadness that the PSILab team has learned of the tragic death of their colleague and friend, Matthew Willson, who suffered a stray gunshot wound to the head on Jan. 16 while visiting a relative in Atlanta,” writes the Department of Astrophysics, Geophysics and Oceanography of the Faculty of Science of the University of Liège in a communication.
According to the BBC, Wilson was visiting his American girlfriend in Brookhaven. The couple was in bed when a number of gunshots were fired from a building across the street at 2 a.m. One of the shots pierced the exterior wall of the apartment and hit the doctor. According to local police, the stray bullet came from several shots “fired randomly by careless people trying to empty their warehouse”.
“Great friend lost”
The 31-year-old Briton was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead moments later. “The bullet had done too much damage to his brain, he was brain dead and there was little chance he would ever wake up,” his sister Kate Willson told the BBC. “Everyone who knew my brother has lost a wonderful friend.”
According to Kate Willson, who boarded a plane to the US right after she learned of the incident, her brother was killed in “a real senseless act”. She said no arrests have been made yet.
Matthew Willson has been a postdoctoral researcher at the PSILab of the STAR Institute at the University of Liège since October 2019. He made important contributions to the development of METIS, one of the first generation instruments for the European Extremely Large Telescope, and conducted research in the field of planet formation.
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