THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 16, 1996 TAG: 9603160358
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
A man fired shots in a second-floor hallway of Norfolk State University's Scott Hall, the men's dorm where a student was killed two years ago, Norfolk State officials confirmed Friday.
The incident occurred Tuesday morning, but no one was hurt, said James W. Satterfield, vice president for student affairs. Campus police have not found the man but are continuing their investigation, Satterfield said.
Satterfield and Scott Hall residents interviewed Friday said they didn't know the man's motive or what exactly preceded the shootings. Students said he fired at least nine shots, leaving some bullet holes in doors, and then left.
``Somebody was just shooting in the hallway,'' said a sophomore who lives on the third floor of Scott Hall. ``We don't know what he was doing. . . . I just try to stay away from it.''
Satterfield said the rooms and students were searched immediately after the gunshots, but ``security wasn't able to find anybody.'' He said campus police did not know who fired the shots, but believed he was not a student.
Norfolk State isn't the only local school facing an outbreak of violent crime. Three nighttime robberies have occurred at Old Dominion University in the past month, all near the Powhatan and Midrise dorms on thewestern edge of campus. The last occurred Wednesday night.
William ``Cliff'' Rice, ODU's police chief, said Friday that in all three instances, a male walking alone was approached from behind by the robber, who demanded money. Twice, the robber displayed a gun. No more than $25 was taken each time, Rice said, and no one was injured.
At Norfolk State, tragedy struck Scott Hall two years ago. In January 1994, Gerard Edwards, a freshman from Maryland, was shot to death as he slept in his room. Four students were convicted in Edwards' killing last year.
One of them testified in court that school officials brushed off his pleas to control escalating violence between rival student groups before the shooting. In December, the families of Edwards and another student wounded in the 1994 shooting sued Norfolk State, accusing administrators of ignoring ``violent, unsafe and dangerous'' conditions at Scott Hall.
NSU officials have repeatedly denied that they ignored any warnings about the tensions at Scott. But since the shooting, campus administrators said they have beefed up security, putting a guard on every floor in dorms and adding seminars to warn students about dangers.
On Friday, Satterfield vouched for NSU's attempts to maintain safety: ``We still have the same security there. Campus police are in and out of all our buildings. . . .
``We do everything we can for the safety of all our students. We've got security in the buildings, we have meetings with the students, we have seminars and workshops, and we're continuing to do what we can.''
Satterfield said visitors are usually required to check in at the front desk at Scott Hall. He said he didn't know how the gunman got in. ``You have people who walk around,'' he said. ``. . . Someone may very well be walking in with five or six students.''
Winston Hylton, a freshman from Silver Spring, Md., who lives in Scott Hall, said the university began requiring visitors to sign in only on Monday, the day before the hallway shooting. ``Before that, anybody could just walk in like a student,'' he said. Even now, Hylton said, ``sometimes they'll ask people to sign in, sometimes they won't.''
But he said he had noticed more security guards since the incident Tuesday. ``I think there could be more (security), but for right now, I think it's OK,'' he said. ``I feel safe with the people that are here now. . . . I just don't bother anybody else, and nobody really bothers me.''
However, he said a friend living at Scott Hall planned to move off-campus next semester. ``He's scared,'' Hylton said.
The dormitory sits on Park Avenue, between the Wilder Performing Arts Center, which is nearing completion, and the Twin Towers dorms.
At ODU, the police chief, Rice, said his force is working with city police to solve the robberies. ODU also has expanded security patrols across campus at night, he said. A flier was recently sent to dorms informing students of the robberies and urging them to use the campus escort service at night.
Rice said students have also been told to travel in groups and to avoid walking outside late at night. ``This guy has not hit anyone traveling in a group at all,'' he said.
In the FBI's most recent campus crime statistics, Norfolk State was listed with two murders on campus in 1994 - more than any other college in Virginia. In addition to Edwards' killing, a student was accused of dumping her newborn baby in a trash bin behind her dorm. She has not yet been tried.
Overall, NSU recorded a drop in the overall number of crimes on campus, from 225 in 1993 to 205 in 1994. But the number of violent crimes, including murders and assaults, increased from 10 to 15. Only two other Virginia universities reported more violent crimes - George Mason University (29) and the College of William and Mary (21).
Norfolk State police officials said the increase reflected not a crime problem, but the school's stepped-up efforts to report all incidents, even fistfights. However, Satterfield said the hallway shooting Tuesday was not reported to city police.
Old Dominion's figures showed an increase in violent crimes - from zero to two - in 1994, but a 21 percent drop in overall crimes, from 401 to 317. ILLUSTRATION: [Info box]
CAMPUS STATISTICS
Overall, Norfolk State recorded a drop in the overall number of
crimes on campus, from 225 in 1993 to 205 in 1994. But the number of
violent crimes, including murders and assaults, increased from 10 to
15.
Only two other Virginia universities reported more violent crimes
- George Mason University (29) and the College of William and Mary
(21).
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK STATE UNIVERSITY OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY SHOOTING
ROBBERY STATISTICS
by CNB