Bruh Shot at JSU

[PerroLoco]

Student, 23, shot on JSU campus


Benjamin Hart listed in fair condition; fellow student faces charges



A Jackson State University student described as a campus leader was shot Friday afternoon by another student in the campus union on the first day of class, officials said.

Benjamin Hart, 23, a senior from Inverness, was shot once in the upper abdomen about 1 p.m. in the lobby of Jacob L. Reddix Campus Union near the bookstore, said JSU President Ronald Mason. Hart was listed in fair condition Friday following surgery at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

The shooting stemmed from an altercation on a walkway outside the campus union between Hart and graduate student Ryan Mack, said Anthony Dean, director of university communications.
Mack, 32, is charged with aggravated assault and possession of a weapon on school property. He is being held at the Hinds County Detention Center at Raymond.

A student is expelled for one calendar year if convicted of having a weapon on school property. A conviction for aggravated assault carries up to one year in jail or 20 years in the penitentiary.



Mack


Students Anthony Hales, 20, of Poplarville, who is a football player, and Kenneth Hair, 21, also are charged with disorderly conduct.

Both men were released on their own recognizance around 6:40 p.m. from the Hinds County Detention Center, a jail official said.

The last shooting on a college campus in the state was at Holmes Community College in April, when Dwaeuntre' Davis, 19, of Franklinton, La., was fatally shot in the right side of the chest in a campus parking lot after a fight at a dance in the student union. He was a bystander.



Hales


Details about the circumstances of the JSU shooting were not available Friday. Campus police are investigating.

Gabrielle Frazier, a sophomore English major, said Hart is popular around campus and is a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.

"I don't understand why anybody would have shot him," said Frazier, among students gathered outside the campus union talking about the shooting."He's an outgoing guy. A lot of people know him."

Fraternity members, who were at UMC, would not discuss the shooting. They said their prayers are with Hart's family.

It is unknown how many people were in the union building at the time of the shooting. The union houses a bookstore, student government offices, temporary registration and financial aid, a bowling alley, Subway and the Campus Grille.

About 150 students attended an impromptu prayer vigil in the Charles S. Moore building, said Kimberly Hardy, a speech communication senior and Student Government Association president.

Hardy, who helped organized the vigil with Hilliard Lackey, president of the campus alumni association, was in an office in the third floor of the union with about four other people at the time of the shooting.

"Some young ladies came up and said somebody was shooting," she said. "We stayed upstairs. Our initial reaction was to stop and pray. He's (Hart) a leader on campus, and a positive young man for JSU. Younger students look up to him."

While JSU university has a "solid" security force with guard booths at every entrance, Mason said there's only so much the school can do.

"What are you going to do? Put metal detectors on every door all the time? You can't live like that," Mason said. "We can review our security policies. But if anything was foolproof, it (violence) wouldn't happen anywhere."

Frazier said the shooting hasn't changed her views about her school.

"We just had a dance last night (Thursday) on the plaza for all kinds of students. There were kids from Tougaloo (College) and JSU and Millsaps (College). That's the kind of feeling we have here," she said. "I don't want people to think of us as a shoot-'em-up campus."

Meanwhile, JSU's football team practiced without one key player Friday afternoon.

JSU coach James Bell said if Hales "is under suspicion, then they've got to do what they've got to do, of course."

Hales, whose nickname is Pop (short for his hometown of Poplarville), is a redshirt sophomore fullback, Bell said. He is battling with two other returnees for the starting job as fullback.