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NCCU graduate student was shot (more from Durham's finest)
Raleigh News & Observer ^ | 1/06/2006 | Matt Dees

Posted on 01/06/2007 7:49:57 AM PST by nctexan

DURHAM - An autopsy determined that Denita Monique Smith, a prominent N.C. Central University graduate student whose body was found outside her apartment Thursday, was shot to death.

Police are looking to question a woman who they say left Campus Crossings apartments in a burgundy Ford Explorer shortly after the shooting.

But police are saying little else about the investigation into Smith's death, which shocked the NCCU campus and Smith's family and friends.

Sgt. Jack Cates of the Durham Police Department wouldn't say how many times or where Smith, 25, had been shot. He said police have no suspects and no motive. Police were called about 8 a.m. Thursday after receiving a report about shots fired in the apartment complex that houses mostly NCCU students.

They found nothing.

Less than two hours later, maintenance workers found the bloodied body of Smith at the bottom of outdoor concrete steps. They called police back, telling dispatchers that the person might have had a heart attack and fallen down the stairs.

For the next 24 hours, investigators treated the case as a suspicious death, saying they were unable to determine whether it was intentional. Smith's sheet-covered body lay for hours while detectives puzzled over the scene.

Then came the news Friday that the death likely was no accident... SNIP ... Cates, of the Durham police, said he did not know whether the shooting was an isolated event or whether the public could be in danger. "I don't know who did this at this point," he said.

Media were banned Thursday and Friday from entering the apartment complex or speaking with residents.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: duke; durham; nccu; police
Amazing work by the Durham 'Keystone Cops' that did a similar fine piece of work on the Duke lacrosse case.

Missed the body and had to be called back two hours later... Couldn't tell a gunshot victim from an accident victim... Took 24 hours to figure out it wasn't natural causes... 'Banned' media from talking to residents.

(Wonder if Nifong is involved)

1 posted on 01/06/2007 7:50:03 AM PST by nctexan
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To: nctexan

Good grief...Durham makes the keystone cops of Boulder, CO look like the FBI. They certainly did a shoddy investigation if maintenance workers had to locate a shooting victim for them.


2 posted on 01/06/2007 8:18:13 AM PST by kittymyrib
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To: nctexan

Let's see...at 8 a.m. a call was made reporting gun shots at this address. Two hours later, the body is found at the bottom of the stairwell in plain view, obviously dead. Can anyone else put the connection together? Why did the cops take so long to say it? Oh, they were trying to get their stories straight on why it took 2 hours. Someone should interview the local donut shop and see how many cops were there at 8 a.m.


3 posted on 01/06/2007 8:27:38 AM PST by TommyDale (If we don't put a stop to this global warming, we will all be dead in 10,000 years!)
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To: nctexan

And of course, the local news media can't see any connection between the fact that this young lady had been a photographer for the NCCU newspaper, and witnessed interviews with friends and family that were negative about the Duke non-rape false accuser. Nothing to see here, move along...


4 posted on 01/06/2007 8:31:05 AM PST by TommyDale (If we don't put a stop to this global warming, we will all be dead in 10,000 years!)
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To: TommyDale
Sadly this seems like another case of Durham police dis-information... or monumental incompetence to a level that's hard to believe.

Also, the 'banning' of talking to residents is more than strange.

5 posted on 01/06/2007 8:31:26 AM PST by nctexan
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To: nctexan

The only reason I can see in "banning" talking to residents is to cover up for something or someone. Like maybe the Durham PD knows who did it, just like they knew whose DNA was in Crystal, but never identified it?

I'll say it: The deceased young lady at NCCU knew too much.
It was not random, because the odds of the connection is far too coincidental.


6 posted on 01/06/2007 8:34:37 AM PST by TommyDale (If we don't put a stop to this global warming, we will all be dead in 10,000 years!)
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To: nctexan

In Durham, it is easy to dismiss any investigations of a murder by simply declaring it a "random drive-by shooting" because it happens so often. It obviously happens often enough that the police doesn't think anything urgent about a report of gunfire.


7 posted on 01/06/2007 8:37:59 AM PST by TommyDale (If we don't put a stop to this global warming, we will all be dead in 10,000 years!)
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To: nctexan

Police Probe Death of NCCU Student at Apartments

Posted: Jan. 4, 2007
Updated: Jan. 5, 2007
WRAL.com

Durham — Durham police are investigating what they say is the suspicious death of a North Carolina Central University student whose body was found in an apartment building near campus.

Investigators received a report at about 10 a.m. Thursday that a maintenance worker had found a woman at the bottom of a stairwell at Campus Crossing Apartments. Her belongings were scattered about the body, and a pool of blood was on the bottom step, police said.

The woman was identified as Denita Monique Smith, a graduate mass communications student from Charlotte. Smith received a bachelor's degree in English from N.C. Central, worked at the campus newspaper and had planned to wrap up her thesis this semester, university officials said.

"She really could have done anything she wanted to do. She had a very bright future," professor Thomas Evans said. "It just sucks the air out of the room. We loved her dearly, and we're going to miss her a lot."

"I think it's devastating when you lose someone like Denita with so much promise and such a good person," Chancellor James Ammons said. "I think it's going to be a long time before this community heals."

N.C. Central Police Chief Willie Williams said Smith lived on the second floor of the apartment complex and was found on the first floor. He said it was too early to determine a cause of death or whether it was a homicide, suicide or an accident.

"I'm very, very concerned any time I have a death within my jurisdiction," Williams said at a press conference.

N.C. Central plans to increase security over the next few days to help calm any fears in the community, he said. Patrols will expand from 12 hours a day to round-the-clock, he said.

The apartment complex, located on East Cornwallis Road, is privately owned, but the university leases it, Williams said. Numerous students live there, he said.

The university planned to make counselors available to help students and staff cope with the death, he said.

Police said they received reports of gunshots at the apartment complex at about 8 a.m. Thursday, but officers dispatched to the area couldn't find anything. Police said they don't know whether the reports might be related to Smith's death.

Anyone with information related to Thursday's shooting is asked to call Durham CrimeStoppers at (919) 683-1200.


8 posted on 01/06/2007 8:59:49 AM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: nctexan
She had compiled a decent portfolio for a grad student, including internship at the NYT, she seemed very bright and capable.

Too back the media spent so much energy polishing up the skank in the Duke case, but is just trying to bush this one off.

9 posted on 01/06/2007 9:54:28 AM PST by Fido969 ("The hardest thing in the world to understand is income tax." - Albert Einstein)
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