Six Livingstone College freshmen are in jail after being charged with the Friday night shooting death of a Catawba College student.
Darris Morris, 21, of Batesburg, S.C., was shot in the chest after what police called an altercation between students of the two schools.
Morris, an all-conference linebacker for the Catawba College football team, died just before midnight at Rowan Regional Medical Center.
Police say two other Catawba College students, Demetrius “Duke” Phipps, 19, and Bradley McCrary, 20, of Welcome, also were shot.
Two Livingstone College students, Terrence Austin and Ricardo Battle, were wounded when a Catawba College security guard fired at the car carrying the students.
Police later were called to the Livingstone campus, where they found the wounded Livingstone students at the security office.
Three students who were shot were treated at Rowan Regional Medical Center Friday night and released. McCrary was admitted, along with Catawba student Ortheus Barge, who injured his leg trying to get away from the shooting. Both those students were released Saturday.
Salisbury Deputy Chief Mark Wilhelm said alcohol was involved. Police did not search the dorm because the crime scene was outside, but Wilhelm said the odor of alcohol was prevalent during the interviews of those involved.
Wilhelm added that investigators seized 42 grams of marijuana and a small amount crack cocaine from a Dodge Dynasty the Livingstone students were in.
Livingstone College officials said they have temporarily suspended the six students charged and plan to meet Monday with Catawba College officials about the tragedy.
“We offer condolences to the family of the student who was killed and hope for the speedy recovery of those who were injured,” said Livingstone President Dr. Algeania W. Freeman.
Catawba College officials reached out to students throughout the weekend, offering counseling and support. The college postponed its Saturday basketball game against Carson-Newman and scheduled a worship service for 6 tonight at the Omwake- Dearborn Chapel.
Saturday morning, Salisbury Police cruisers lined up outside the magistrate’s office at the rear of the Rowan County Justice Center on Main Street with five of the six men charged.
One by one, officers brought the arrested Livingstone students in front of the magistrate. The suspects then were led to the Rowan County Detention Center.
“I didn’t shoot nobody,” Ricardo Battle said as Detective Rita Rule escorted him to the jail. Battle told photographers he was shot in the head for no reason but managed to fire two shots himself.
Battle — who sustained a gunshot wound to the head and was treated and released from Rowan Regional Medical Center — was dressed in a hospital gown, pants and a jacket. “I got shot in the head for doing nothing,” he said Saturday morning.
Those charged are: Battle, 19, 899 Forestpath, Stone Mountain, Ga.; Terence Jerard Austin, 19, 97 Clay St., Atlanta; Isaac Lamon Brazeal, 19, 138 Dunbar Woods, Battleboro; Morris Lee Brannon, 20, 2126 University, Des Moines, Iowa; Karl Anthony Wilson, 19, 2300 Cottage Grove Ave., Atlanta; and Corey Peterson, 19, of Maryland.
Deputy Chief Wilhelm said all six are charged with murder because they were present at the commission of a felony.
The shooting occurred shortly after 11 p.m. on Summit Avenue near Catawba College’s Goodman Gym.
According to police, an altercation started at a large party in Pine Knot Dorm at Catawba College.About 60 to 70 students, both white and black, were present, said party-goer Brandon Thompson. The argument became heated and quickly spilled into the street, where witnesses said Livingstone students went to a vehicle parked on the street. There one student pulled out a gun, Wilhelm said.
Thompson and cousin Robert Owens, a freshman basketball player at Catawba, were approaching Pine Knot Dorm when they heard arguing. They could not hear what the argument was about. But “you could see they were ready to fight,” Thompson said.
Thompson and Owens remember hearing a girl say that one of the Livingstone students had a gun
“The next thing you knew there were shots fired,” Owens said.
Students scattered. “Everybody ran,” Thompson said. “It was chaos.”
“I’ve been here for 18 years and this is the darkest day that I’ve seen at Catawba,” said athletic director Dennis Davidson.
Davidson and new head football coach Chip Hester spent most of the night on campus and at the hospital.
“I’m not supposed to comment on what happened,” Davidson said. “And I don’t really know. There are a lot of stories, and I didn’t know what to believe by the end of the night.”
“It sounded like the whole campus was out there,” said Hester, who at 3 p.m. Saturday had been awake for 34 straight hours. “It could’ve been so much worse. I’ve heard as many as 14 to 17 shots. I don’t know. The security guards really helped the situation.”
Someone fired several shots from near the car, then six men jumped into a 1993 Dodge Dynasty and sped off, according to police.
“We have reason to believe they were firing as they left,”Wilhelm said. The car is registered to Shirley Brazeal of Battleboro, mother of Isaac Lamon Brazeal, one of the men charged with Morris’ death. Shirley Brazeal could not be reached for comment Saturday.
It is unclear who actually fired the gun.
After the shots were fired, Catawba security guard Allen Hinson returned fire, Wilhelm said. The security officers use .40-caliber handguns.
Saturday morning, Wilhelm said he had not talked with Catawba security officers.
After the gunfire, Thompson said he went to make sure his cousin was not hurt. He then noticed a friend of his had been hit. Phipps was shot in the right hand and leg.
Phipps, a Catawba sophomore, had just come out of his dorm, Abernethy, and was at least 100 yards from where the shots were fired. Phipps said he heard eight or nine shots.
Phipps believes he was hit by at least one ricochet bullet. He was shot in the hand and leg.
McCrary, who lives in Pine Knot Dorm, was shot in the leg. Austin, who lives at Livingstone’s Tucker Hall, sustained a minor head injury, and Battle, the other wounded Livingstone student, also was shot in the head.
Ortheus Barge, a Catawba student from Concord, injured his knee running away from the shooting.
At the scene Friday night, bookbags and broken beer bottles littered the ground and sidewalks, illuminated by flashing lights from police and rescue vehicles.
Student resident assistants told student onlookers to return to their dorm rooms and media crews to stay off the campus.
Police tape roped off the scene where rescue workers tried to save the fatally wounded student. Morris was shot just next to a set of steps adjacent to the gym on Summit Avenue.
Police notified the Morris family Friday night, Wilhelm said. His mother, Cleavie Morris, drove to Salisbury from South Carolina and met with police.
“She was very shocked and upset,” Wilhelm said. Wilhelm indicated she was returning home today and that the funeral will be held in South Carolina.
Wilhelm said Morris has at least one sister who accompanied her mother here.
Throughout the night, Salisbury Police had eight investigators and 10 patrol officers investigating. Police have recovered some weapons, but Wilhelm would not say what caliber the guns were or whether they were actually used in the shooting.
“There is absolutely no indication that the shooting is sports related,” Wilhelm said. “From time to time after ball games (between the two schools), there has been some vandalism.
“There has never been anything of this magnitude. It appears to be a party that just got out of hand.”
Wilhelm said none of the six suspects offered any resistance when they were arrested. Police arrested Battle and Austin, the wounded Livingstone students, at the hospital. Early Saturday, the four other students were picked up at Livingstone College.
Each is being held under no bond pending a first court appearance Monday.
Ronnie Gallagher, Joanie Morris and James Barringer contributed to this article. Contact Jonathan Weaver at 704-797-4266 or
jweaver@salisburypost.com .
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