News

S.C. Campus Killer Arrested, Charged

by Nuzha Nuseibeh

Early Saturday, police arrested a suspect in Friday's campus shooting at South Carolina State University. The 19-year-old student, Justin Bernard Singleton, was charged with the murder of 20-year-old fellow student Brandon Robinson, who died of his injuries late yesterday, after being shot outside the university's Hugine Suites. But the police are still hunting for the other three students who they believe were also behind Friday's killing.

At roughly 1:30 p.m. yesterday, campus police were called to the Andrew Hugine Suites Living and Learning community, where they found the fatally shot football player. Robinson and Singleton had allegedly been arguing when Singleton pulled out a gun — legal to purchase and carry in South Carolina, but illegal to bring onto public or private school property — and shot Robinson in the neck.

"At this time, we believe we have the individual who fired the shot," a public information officer with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division told the Miami Herald.

Eyewitnesses also identified another four suspects who had left campus, but it's still unclear what motive, if any, was behind the murder. "This agency is assisting the Sheriff's Office and we are actively engaged in a manhunt," said Orangeburg Department of Public Safety Capt. Mike Adams.

The school, which was initially put on lockdown, has now had those restrictions lifted. But South Carolina State's Facebook page told students to "remain cautious and report any suspicious activity to police." The school president also issued a statement saying,"our first order of business is to make sure that our students are safe."

This is the second shooting at South Carolina state in the last three years. In 2011, a 22-year-old was killed when a drug deal ended up in a campus gunfight. And only earlier this week, a shooting at Purdue University left one man dead, and yet another student was critically injured after a shooting at Widener University near Philadelphia.

South Carolina State university, which sits just south of Columbia, has roughly 3,000 students enrolled.