Free Republic

How's this for chilling -- the night before she was shot in Berkeley over the summer, Dartmouth College student Meleia Willis-Starbuck handled the very gun that was used to kill her. That's the story Willis-Starbuck's friend and accused killer Christopher Hollis is telling authorities, and it's one of several new details emerging from the tragic shooting. The 19-year-old Willis-Starbuck, who graduated from Berkeley High School and had just finished her freshman year at Dartmouth, was arguing with a group of UC Berkeley football players and their friends on College Avenue early July 17 and reportedly used her cell phone to...

Moments before she was shot to death, 19-year-old Meleia Willis-Starbuck was heard by witnesses telling a friend on a cellular telephone to "bring the heat," which Berkeley police say was an apparent reference to a gun. The revelation marks a new twist in the tragic July 17 death of the Berkeley native and Dartmouth College student. Berkeley police say Willis-Starbuck was slain moments after making a telephone call to ask for help in an argument she and some friends were having with a group of college-age men near UC Berkeley. Two East Bay men who were longtime friends of Willis-Starbuck...

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- An Ivy League student who championed social justice and aid for underserved communities was shot and killed early Sunday across the street from a University of California, Berkeley, dormitory, police said. Dartmouth student Meleia Willis-Starbuck, 19, was pronounced dead at 2 a.m. from a single gunshot wound, police and coroner's officials said. "A kid comes out here to do good and they are shot - this is terrible," said Lauren Schwartz, a Dartmouth graduate who was set to mentor Willis-Starbuck this summer. Police said Willis-Starbuck, who grew up in Berkeley and was spending the summer in...