A Ghanaian academic based in the United States, Dr Kofi Akamani, has been shot dead in Illinois, where he worked as a lecturer at Southern Illinois University (SIU) Carbondale.

The 48-year-old was fatally wounded in a shooting reported near Lake Road, between Murphysboro and Carbondale, at about 5 p.m. on Saturday.

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said deputies who responded to the scene found Akamani injured, and he was subsequently taken to Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, where he was pronounced dead.

Dr Akamani was a professor in SIU Carbondale’s Department of Forestry, where he taught subjects including forest recreation and conservation social science.

His death has triggered an investigation by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, which said his 35-year-old wife, Betty Akamani, had been arrested in connection with the incident and was facing multiple charges.

Authorities said the circumstances surrounding the shooting remain under investigation and cautioned that the case was still in its early stages.

The Jackson County Ambulance Service, Jackson County Coroner’s Office and Jackson County State’s Attorney’s Office assisted the sheriff’s office with the investigation. No further details have been released by authorities.

Dr Akamani’s academic journey began in Ghana at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Development Planning with a specialisation in Urban Planning.

He later obtained an MPhil from the University of Oslo’s Centre for Development and the Environment in 2006 before earning a PhD in Natural Resources from the University of Idaho.

During his doctoral studies, he returned to Ghana for six months to research collaborative forest management and its impact on the social and ecological resilience of two forest-dependent communities in the Ashanti Region.