Catawba College holds a worship service each Sunday evening in its Omwake-Dearborn Chapel.
But the service this week attracted hundreds seeking solace, hope and answers after the Friday-night shooting death of Catawba student Darris Morris.
“There is anger, there is heartache, there is confusion, there is uneasiness ... as we attempt to understand and make sense of the things that make no sense,”said the Rev. Dr. Kenneth Clapp, Catawba’s chaplain.
As a pianist played “Amazing Grace” shortly before the service began, students huddled together in small groups and faculty members slowly filed in with spouses.
First a trickle, then a flood of people filled the cavernous, 1,100-seat sanctuary.
They sang “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”and listened to readings from Psalms proclaiming that God is a refuge and strength.
They wept, and they prayed.
Morris, 21, of Batesburg, S.C., was a popular senior who would have graduated in May. He also was an all-conference linebacker for the Catawba football team.
He died late Friday after being shot during an altercation with Livingstone College students on the Catawba campus.
Six Livingstone students are charged with his murder and made their first appearance in court this morning. See related article above.
Salisbury Police say two of the Livingstone students charged, Ricardo Battle and Terence Austin, both 19, were wounded Friday night when Catawba security guards returned fire from the Livingstone students.
Two other Catawba students, Demetrius “Duke” Phipps, 19, of Newport News, Va., and Bradley McCrary, 20, of Welcome, also were shot and injured. Friends pushed McCrary, in a wheelchair, to the front of the chapel for the Sunday service.
After Sunday’s service, students and others quietly left the sanctuary and shared their grief outside.
Just inside the chapel entrance, Tom Smith, chairman of the Catawba College Board of Trustees, and Dr. Algeania Freeman, Livingstone College president, embraced and spoke quietly for several moments.
Catawba President Fred Corriher Jr. was vacationing in Europe at the time of the shooting and is on his way back to Salisbury, according to college spokeswoman Tonia Black-Gold.
Smith said the relationship between the two colleges has not been damaged by the shooting. At a meeting this afternoon, administrators with both schools will “reconfirm the close relationship.”
He said the college’s trustees, like the students, administrators and faculty, feel the loss of Morris deeply.
“We work very hard for this college and live for it and feel it’s like a family,” he said. “We feel like it’s a loss of part of our family, too.”
Freeman, looking tired, said she left the bedside of her husband in Norfolk, Va., where he was recovering from surgery, to attend a service at Livingstone and the Catawba service Sunday. The service at Livingstone was closed to the public.
Freeman declined to speak about the arrested students.
She said students on the Livingstone campus are receiving grief counseling, as are Catawba students. And, as at Catawba, the mood is a heavy one at
Livingstone.
“I think there is sadness, there is grieving, there is mourning,”she said. “But there are also prayers being sent up for both institutions.”
Morris’ death is the second on the Catawba College campus in the past few months. Stephen Andrew Grooms, a 20-year-old sophomore, died in an October dorm fire.
As he did in October, Clapp, the chaplain, had to stand before a full house and put into words the feeling of vulnerability that again pervades this quiet campus.
The violent death of Morris has “forced us to come face to face with the human condition,” he said.
“... We have lost some of our innocence, but more importantly, we have lost a member of our community.”
Contact Scott Jenkins at 704-797-4248 or sjenkins@salisburypost.com
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