Student with Salisbury ties shot

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, January 12, 2011

A 22-year-old University of Maryland student with ties to Salisbury — Justin DeSha-Overcash — was shot and killed Tuesday morning at his home in College Park, Md.
DeSha-Overcash went to elementary school in Salisbury and attended Knox Middle School before moving to Pennsylvania his freshman year of high school. He was a senior in college, hoping to attend graduate school for music production, his close friend and ex-girlfriend Kara Sarvey told a Post reporter.
The Prince George County Police Department has released few details about the shooting, but said marijuana was found in his home, where he lived with at least two other men.
DeSha-Overcash, a physics and astronomy major, tutored the college’s athletes, was a teacher’s assistant for several classes, and the recipient of the 2010-2011 Angelo Bardasis Fellowship, a scholarship offered by the University of Maryland’s Physics Department.
“He was very outgoing, and wasn’t afraid to talk to people,” Sarvey said. “He was very respectful, and everyone called him the Southern kid because he had such a Southern accent.
“He was friends with a lot of different groups of people.”
Sarvey said she anticipates DeSha-Overcash’s funeral to be held in Salisbury, and if so, plans to attend. For the friends he met in high school and college, she hopes to coordinate a memorial service in Pennsylvania.
His parents are Randy Overcash, of Pennsylvania, and Karen DeSha, of Baltimore, Md.
Read Thursday’s Post for more.