The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) said deputies responded to reports of a shooting at about 5 p.m. on Saturday near Lake Road between Murphysboro and Carbondale, Illinois.
The victim, identified as 48-year-old Kofi Akamani, was transported to Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, where he was pronounced dead from injuries sustained in the shooting.
Dr Akamani was a professor in SIU Carbondale’s Department of Forestry, where he taught courses in forest recreation and conservation social science, according to the university’s website.
Following an investigation into the incident, JCSO said Akamani’s wife, 35-year-old Betty Akamani, was arrested in connection with the shooting and faces multiple charges over her alleged involvement.
The investigation is ongoing and remains in its early stages. JCSO said the Jackson County Ambulance Service, Jackson County Coroner’s Office and Jackson County State’s Attorney’s Office assisted with the investigation.
The sheriff’s office said no further information would be released at this time.
Academic background
Dr Akamani began his tertiary education in Ghana at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Development Planning, specialising in Urban Planning.
He initially intended to pursue further studies in Urban Planning but was advised that the future of planning lay in sustainable development.
He subsequently joined the Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM) at the University of Oslo in Norway, where he earned a Master of Philosophy degree in 2006.
He later obtained a PhD in Natural Resources from the University of Idaho in the United States.
During his doctoral studies, Dr Akamani spent six months in Ghana researching the impact of collaborative forest management on the social-ecological resilience of two forest-dependent communities in the Ashanti Region.
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