VALDOSTA – A former Valdosta State University student who garnered national attention for walking on an American flag during a campus protest is set to appear in court this month on an unrelated gun charge.

Eric Sheppard has been charged with one count of carrying a weapon in a school safety zone.

Sheppard’s trial is set to begin the week of April 28, according to court documents.

Sheppard was part of a group which held several protests in which an American flag was placed on the ground and repeatedly walked on. The protests gained national attention after Air Force Veteran and former Playboy model Michelle Manhart was briefly detained but not arrested by campus police for taking the protesters’ flag during a demonstration.

In April 2015, VSU police discovered a handgun in a book bag left on campus following a demonstration in which Sheppard attended.

Investigators later linked the gun to Sheppard through a purchase receipt from a pawn shop, according to police reports.

Sheppard eluded police for a month and was arrested in Miami, Fla. in May 2015. He was granted bond under the condition that he remain at his mother’s house in Cobb County with an ankle monitor and that he does not participate in social media use.

Sheppard spoke to current VSU students during a video chat session last week in which he said the case against him was about a “white superiority complex.”

“The formal charge is a gun charge, but we know for damn sure it’s not about no motherf****** gun,” Sheppard said.