N.C. State Athletes Arrested
Six North Carolina State University students, five of them football players and wrestlers, were arrested Sunday and charged in connection with the early-morning break-in and shooting death of another student at a house near campus.
Three N.C. State football team members, two wrestlers and a former wrestling team member were charged Sunday evening in the death of Neil Vernon Davis, 21, who was shot in his residence near campus about 2:30 a.m.
One wrestler, Clyde Williams Blunt, 20 also was charged with involuntary manslaughter, police said.
Davis, a junior from Fayetteville, died at 8:21 a.m. at Wake Medical Center in Raleigh, said Marilyn Eddinger, a hospital spokeswoman.
Raleigh Police Capt. Mike Longmire said Davis was shot with a 9-mm semiautomatic pistol after a struggle with six students who had been attending a party across the street in the Hunters Club subdivision.
Earlier, Davis had fired several shots out of his house, and a bullet fragment struck a wrestler at the party, Longmire said. The six athletes went to Davis' home, entered the house illegally, and four of them attacked Davis, police said. The gun was taken away from Davis, but the weapon discharged, hitting Davis, according to Longmire.
Blunt was charged with involuntary manslaughter because investigators believe it was his aggressive behavior that resulted in Davis' death, Longmire said.
The three football players Harold Jackson, Willie Knite Wright, and David Paschal Stringer, were all charged with misdemeanor breaking and entering and misdemeanor assault. Wright, 19, also was charged with larceny of a firearm while Jackson, 20, and Stringer, 19, also were charged with accessory to a felony.
Michael Mordarski, 20, a wrestling team member, and Daniel Scott Campenella, 21, a N.C. State student and former wrestler, were charged with misdemeanor breaking and entering, as was Blunt, 20.
The six students were going before a magistrate Sunday evening to have their bonds determined, Longmire said.
The three football players are freshmen and have seen little on no playing time on the team this season. Jackson is a fullback from Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; Wright is a wide receiver from Greensboro and Stringer is a wide receiver from North Brunswick, N.J.
Raleigh police said more charges may be brought in connection with the break-in and shooting.
Davis was a business administation major who lived in the town home with three roommates.
"This has got to stop in the this world. It's just not fair that a 21-year-old gets into an altercation with somebody and then gets shot," Matthew Clark, a roommate of Davis, told WTVD in Durham.
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