Kinesiology graduate student Zachariah Wood was killed by a car while riding his bicycle on Lee Drive Saturday, Nov. 14, said Cpl. L’Jean McKneely of the Baton Rouge Police Department.
McKneely said the incident is still under investigation, but it appears Wood attempted to cross the road lane and pulled out in front of a vehicle. There were two other cyclists with him, but they saw the vehicle coming and did not attempt to cross the road, McKneely said.
Wood was a graduate assistant in the School of Kinesiology and taught tennis classes to undergrads this semester, said Director of the School of Kinesiology Melinda Solmon. 
When Wood first came to LSU, he worked at the UREC, but later started working in the Kinesiology program, earning his master’s degree and most recently working toward his doctorate, Solmon said. 
Wood’s tennis students and the kinesiology department are “devastated” about his untimely death.
“He let his students know that his class was important to him,” Solmon said.
Earlier this semester, Wood assigned his students a group project in which they would learn a specific tennis skill and teach it to their classmates, Solmon said.
Though his class will be picked up by other graduate students in the program, Wood’s students reached out to Solmon requesting to finish the assignment. 
“He was a very talented student as well as a very exceptional human being,” Solmon said.