Nathan Straus
Jacksonville Daily Progress
JACKSONVILLE —
Jacksonville Police Department Detective Sgt. Daniel Franklin said the department has yet to positively identify suspects among the participants and witnesses involved in a recent fight-turned-shooting on the America’s Best Value Inn parking lot.
Franklin said the incident spilled out from the Bottom’s Up club, located next to the makeshift residency hall currently used by Lon Morris College students, on Sunday night or Monday morning.
“This case is still under investigation and we don’t have any solid information yet as to what’s going on,” Franklin said. “From what we have seen there are seven Lon Morris College students who are (self-proclaimed) gang members who are witnesses or participants, but many more people were involved.”
LMC Director of Public Relations Afton Barber said 11 people have recently been expelled from the college, some in connection with this shooting incident.
Franklin said he didn’t know the names of any students expelled.
The Monday morning shooting was the latest in a string of incidents stretching back to Sept. 6 which police officials have referred to as having to do with gang activity involving Lon Morris College students.
According to preliminary police reports, it culminated in up to five shots being fired at the parking lot, though none were injured in the shooting.
Ella Bryant, a Mount Enterprise resident, said she pulled her grandson, Dontavia, from the college last week.
“I got my grandson out last Wednesday and the night after I got home we heard about the problems at the Inn,” Bryant said.
She said other residents of the Inn had taken her grandson’s food and continually harassed him before he requested to be transferred to central campus housing.
“The school told us to come to the campus to file a report,” Bryant said. “We told them there were gangs there, but they didn’t believe us.”
Bryant said Dontavia was even falsely accused by other students of carrying a gun in his car and added a search proved the accusations false. She said when a security officer in the presence of her grandson and a student who had been antagonizing him suggested the instigator might be her grandson, Dontavia pulled out of the college altogether.
“He said it might’ve been my grandson causing trouble,” she said. “You can’t even go in and out of that building without being afraid.”
LMC President Dr. Miles McCall said the administration has taken several recent measures for added student and community safety.
“We’ve contacted the Jacksonville Police Department and (Cherokee County) Sheriff’s Department to use off-duty officers every night of the week. We have hired additional security guards,” McCall said. “We put a cable behind the Inn so only students can drive through there.”
He also said officers watching the premises will be able to see every entrance and exit from the building.
McCall said college security is now working with local law enforcement to identify students involved in the weekend clash. He added any students identified as such can expect to face immediate expulsion. McCall also said campus security officers were commended for their work on the shooting case by Jacksonville police officers.
“Gang activity has gone on in this community and all communities for many years,” McCall said. “It’s not just a LMC problem. It starts with young adults, but it doesn’t mean lots and lots of LMC students are gang members.”
He added the college will continue to work with local law enforcement agencies to find the most effective way to combat any gang-related problems at the school.
“When we get into an area of criminal activity beyond our capability,” McCall said, “we need help.”
