An armed LGBT student activist has been shot dead by police on a college campus in the US.

Scout Shultz, 21, died after police were called to the Georgia Institute of Technology late on Saturday night over reports of a person with “a knife and a gun”.

When officers arrived, Shultz - who was armed with a knife - refused to comply with “multiple verbal commands”, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.

Video taken at the scene appears to show Shultz telling officers to “Shoot me”.

The fourth-year-student, who defined as non-binary, was shot after they continued to advance on police officers with the knife.

Shultz was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where they later died. No officers were injured during the incident.

An independent probe into the incident has now been launched.

The LGBT student activist 'created change across campus' (Photo: Facebook) More

Paying tribute to her child, Shultz’s mother Lynne said police should have used “nonlethal force, like pepper spray or Tasers”.

“(Scout) had a lot of empathy for people, active in a lot of causes,” she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “And very smart. Scary smart, really.”

The university’s LGBT rights group Pride Alliance, which Shultz was the president of, said they were “deeply saddened” by their death.

A post on the group’s Facebook group read: “They have been the driving force behind Pride Alliance for the past two years. They pushed us to do more events and a larger variety events, and we would not be the organisation we are known as without their constant hard work and dedication.

“Their leadership allowed us to create change across campus and in the Atlanta community,” it continued.

“We love you Scout and we will continue to push for change.”

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.