Campus Police is continuing to investigate last week’s shootings at Wolf Village as residents there try to make sense of what happened.
“We’re really getting the paperwork caught up with the investigation,” Capt. Jon Barnwell of Campus Police said.
Around midnight on July 28, a male, 22, and a female, 17, were sitting outside the Wolf Village gazebo when three people shot at them.
Ryan Alexander Barnes, a sophomore in the First Year College; Leroy Barnes, 19; and Terrell Maurice Grimes, 16; were charged with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon with attempt to inflict serious injury, according to Barnwell.
Whitney Blakeney, a sophomore in business management and Barnes’ girlfriend, was arrested for maintaining a dwelling for manufacture, sale and distribution of a controlled substance, marijuana, and was charged later for accessory after the fact.
“We are still investigating these individuals,” Barnwell said. “It could lead to some of our unsolved crimes as well.”
According to Barnwell, the investigation is taxing on Campus Police’s investigative division.
“The majority of our investigators are working full time on this one case right now,” he said.
David Foxx, a senior in political science and Wolf Village resident, said students should learn from the shootings.
“Certain people have deluded themselves into thinking that they can be somewhere and be 100 percent protected from violence and random acts of stupidity,” he said. “The best thing you can do with something like that is continue to educate people about safety and staying together in groups. [Then you need to] have these people prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Most people believe this was a freak incident, not related to the apartment complex, he said, and it could create awareness.
“Students need to be aware that they’re in a more urban environment,” Foxx said. “They’re in an environment where they’re going to be dealing with people who aren’t necessarily there for the same reasons they are.”
Nathan Hardin, a junior in history who will live in Wolf Village in the fall, said the shootings were surprising.
“It definitely opened some eyes,” he said. “Before [a shooting] was just a far-fetched incident.”
Moving across campus to Wolf Village could mean being closer to crime, according to Michael Toothaker, a junior in computer science who will live there this year. But he said it is something to expect anywhere.
“There’s been a fair amount of crime all over campus, it’s just something you have to kind of accept,” he said.