Alleged UNC Shooter Linked To Duke Murder

Authorities in Durham have charged a suspect in the slaying of the University of North Carolina student president with the January killing of a Duke University graduate student.

A warrant filed Thursday charges 17-year-old Lawrence Alvin Lovette Jr. with first-degree murder in the death of Abhijit Mahato. The 29-year-old computational mechanics doctoral student was found in January, shot to death inside his apartment.

Authorities have charged both Lovette and Demario James Atwater with first-degree murder in the death of Eve Carson. The biology and political science major from Athens, Ga., had been shot several times, including once in the right temple.

Durham police Lt. Robert McLaughlin Jr. said early Thursday that officers arrested Lovette at 4:16 a.m. He said the 17-year-old Lovette surrendered to patrol and SWAT officers who had surrounded his home.

Police had surrounded the house hours before after receiving an anonymous tip through the Durham County Sheriff's Office, reports CBS News affiliate WRAL-TV in Raleigh.

Negotiators worked for more than an hour and a half to communicate with Lovette. He began talking with them after he was provided with a telephone, police said. He later agreed to surrender peacefully.

Police on Wednesday arrested 21-year-old Atwater. He later made an initial court appearance on charges of first-degree murder and was ordered held without bond.

Twenty-two-year-old student body president Eve Carson was found last week lying on a street about a mile from campus in an upscale neighborhood, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann.

On Wednesday, Atwater, shackled at the ankle and waist and with a public defender at his side, whispered "yes" when asked whether he understood the charge against him. His next court appearance was scheduled for March 24.

"I hope the arrest can ease the minds of some in the community," District Attorney Jim Woodall said.

Messages left with the Orange County public defenders office were not returned Wednesday.

In the day after Carson's death, police focused their investigation on a suspect pictured in several surveillance photos using her ATM card.

Lovette was identified as the driver in ATM surveillance photos, reports WRAL-TV. Police are also investigating whether he was in Carson's blue Toyota Highlander at the time.

Two surveillance photos from a convenience store show a man, whom police said was Atwater, at the time an attempt was made to use Carson's debit card at an ATM in that store, WRAL-TV reports.

Atwater has a criminal record dating to 2004, including charges of robbery, drug possession and resisting arrest. He was due in court earlier this month on a breaking-and-entering charge. In 2006, he was sentenced to 24 months' probation for possession of a firearm as a felon. He had a court date on that charge the week before Carson's death.

Court records also show Lovette has a criminal background, with charges of breaking and entering and larceny. He is on probation for larceny and is due in Durham court this month on charges of first-degree burglary, felony larceny of a motor vehicle and felony larceny after breaking and entering.

The Board of Trustees at North Carolina offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in her death, and police received hundreds of tips after the first two photos were released over the weekend.

Carson was a prestigious Morehead-Cain scholar at North Carolina, where she was remembered by thousands who gathered Thursday at two campus memorial services. Hundreds of mourners filled the First United Methodist Church in Athens on Sunday at a memorial service in her hometown.

The university said Wednesday a third memorial service will be held next week at the campus basketball arena.