Pubdate: Sun, 15 Aug 2004
Source: Daily Press (VA)
Copyright: 2004 The Daily Press
Contact:  http://www.dailypress.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/585
Author: David Chernicky And Monique Angle

DESPITE BRIGHT LIVES, DRUGS AND DANGEROUS CHOICES KILL

Some Ambitious HU Students Encounter The Dark Side Of What Police Say Are 
Drug-related Shootings.

HAMPTON -- Five students left their homes along the East Coast four years 
ago to enroll at Hampton University, one of the nation's oldest and most 
prestigious historically black colleges.

Mostly they came from upper-middle-class families headed by doctors, 
lawyers, chemists and dentists. One student had an academic scholarship. 
They had attended private high schools, volunteered at hospitals and 
participated in internships over their summer vacations.

Little from their backgrounds would have predicted how their lives would 
unfold over this past year. There was nothing on the surface to suggest any 
of them would end up selling drugs. There was nothing to indicate they'd 
ever feel the need to carry a weapon for protection.

But somewhere along the way, dangerous choices were made, relationships 
formed and boundaries crossed.

In the last year, two of the five were shot to death, one is recovering 
from being hit by several bullets, and two are in jail in connection with 
the crimes.

Police said they believe both shootings were drug-related, though no drugs 
were found at the first shooting. In that incident, police believe the 
victim was mistaken for someone who may have had drugs or money on them. In 
the second shooting, a small amount of marijuana was found in the victim's 
off-campus apartment.

The events that led to the shootings are unclear. Prosecutors say they are 
still trying to figure out how the intersection of these five lives fits 
into a larger mosaic of small-time drug dealers and their associates.

The dean of students at Hampton University said he has been "at his wits 
end" trying to figure out what happened among these seemingly ambitious 
undergraduates.

"The concern I have - and I'm sure society shares - is that to the very 
small percentage of students involved with drugs or guns," human lives 
aren't all that important, said Bennie G. McMorris, Jr., the dean of 
students. "I cannot blame it on TV violence, video games, rap music or BET. 
It's just a decision people make."

Predominantly black universities need to reach out to students in different 
ways in order to stem a descent into dangerous behavior, said Robert E. 
Millette, a sociology professor at Lincoln University, a historically black 
school in Pennsylvania. Millette has studied leadership roles at 
predominantly black colleges and universities.

He said Hampton University is known for its strong academics and visionary 
attitudes toward learning, but schools need to go beyond that.

"We teach them one thing in the classroom, but when they go back to the 
dorm," or their apartments, Millette said, "it is a completely different 
culture."

At least two of the five students were close friends. Christopher Weaver 
arrived in Hampton from Baltimore full of promise four years ago. He'd been 
an Eagle Scout and was an altar boy at his Episcopal church back home.

He met Georgia native Kevin McVay, now 22, during orientation in 2000 and 
the two became friends. Both had attended private high schools before 
coming to HU. McVay was at HU on an academic scholarship.

Also during orientation, Weaver, known on campus as Dread for his long 
dreadlocks, and McVay met fellow student Saadi Bailey. Bailey and McVay 
were both from Decatur, Ga., and had family members who knew each other.

Bailey, now 21, and McVay had grown up six miles apart but didn't know each 
other until meeting at HU. Bailey's aunt and uncle lived next door to McVay 
and his mother.

Weaver and McVay were never close friends with Bailey, authorities said, 
but they ran in the same crowds and saw each other often at parties or 
other social events. Bailey and McVay even shared Christmas dinner together 
at Bailey's aunt's home in Georgia.

Bailey became friendly with another student named John Bivens IV from 
Maryland, but its unclear to police how well, if at all, Bivens knew Weaver 
and McVay.

The fifth player in these events probably didn't know any of the other four 
students, police said.

On the evening of Oct. 23, 2003, 21-year-old Michael Wayne Kennedy Jr. was 
shot and killed as he walked out the door of his off-campus apartment. The 
apartment, one of three in a converted two-story house on County Street, is 
about a quarter of a mile from the HU campus.

Kennedy's roommate heard the shots and found him face down in the foyer 
between the bottom of the stairway and the door. Police believe Kennedy was 
killed by mistake in an apparent drug robbery. Authorities have found no 
link between the junior computer science major from Washington, D.C. and 
his assailants.

In July, police charged Bailey with killing Kennedy.

In addition to Bailey, police charged longtime Hampton resident Brandon 
Hicks, who is 33, with Kennedy's death. The connection between these two 
men is unclear to police.

About six months later, another HU student was shot to death, and Bailey 
was also charged with that murder.

On April 7, Weaver was celebrating his girlfriend's birthday at his 
off-campus apartment when he was shot three times and killed.

The senior political science major from Baltimore had graduated from the 
Gilman School, an all-boys prep high school. He had an impressive 
extracurricular record, having been a volunteer with HIV patients and a 
mentor to young students.

But police say the men who shot Weaver, who was 22, entered his apartment 
for one reason - to steal drugs from him.

On that night, McVay was at the apartment, lounging on the floor, while 
Weaver and his girlfriend were in a back bedroom watching television.

That's when he heard a knock at the door, and Weaver's roommate went to 
answer it.

"We thought it was our friend who decided to come back," McVay said.

As he cracked open the door, two men wearing ski masks and toting handguns 
burst in.

"They ... put a gun in my face and told me to stay on the floor," McVay said.

McVay said he didn't recognize either gunmen, but one was tall and the 
other short and stocky. The shorter man carried what appeared to be a 
.22-caliber pistol and the other man had what appeared to be a large 
"Uzi-type semiautomatic pistol," McVay said.

He remembers the gunmen asking for Weaver by name. He heard them ask Weaver 
for something. He said he knew Weaver sold marijuana and assumed the gunmen 
wanted drugs.

"The next thing I knew I was hearing gunshots," McVay said. That's when he 
tried to make a run for it. He said he could feel the bullets tear into his 
back as he ran for the door.

He collapsed after the third bullet entered. He later learned the bullets 
passed through his vertebra, small intestine, lung, liver and left arm.

McVay blacked out and woke up in the hospital. He spent three days at 
Riverside Regional Medical Center's intensive care unit. While there, his 
friend was buried in Baltimore. The intruders had shot Weaver in the chest. 
About a week and a half after he was released from the hospital, McVay 
bumped into Bailey. Their conversation was cordial.

"He expressed his condolences, asked me how I was doing and let me know if 
I ever needed him for anything to call," McVay said. He gave Bailey a ride 
to his girlfriend's house.

At that time, Hampton police had not connected Bailey to the shootings.

"I had no idea he was involved until a friend called me after he read it in 
the newspaper about two weeks later," McVay said.

In addition to Bailey's arrest, police charged Bivens of Randallston, Md., 
and Hampton residents William Bruce Lee, 21, and Dion Lamont Holley, 32. 
It's unclear what, if any, connection the Hampton residents have with the 
college students.

Bailey, McVay and Bivens were thrown out of school because of their 
connection to the homicides and other offenses. Hampton University has a 
no-tolerance policy when it comes to those who use guns or drugs, said 
McMorris, the dean of students.

New students are told during orientation that if they're caught with guns 
or drugs on or off campus, they're going to get kicked out, McMorris added.

"It's disheartening to someone who understands the value of higher 
education to see a young life ruined because of a student's involvement in 
guns or drugs," he said.

But when they came to HU and even after, the five young men still seemed 
headed in the right direction - at least for a while.

HU awarded McVay a presidential scholarship for his superior work in high 
school and SAT scores of about 1,220.

He graduated near the top of his class at Westminster School, a private, 
coed, college prep school in Atlanta.

McVay excelled academically during his years at HU, too. He made the Dean's 
List every semester and would have graduated cum laude.

Weaver, a Special Olympics lifeguard, was majoring in political science.

Bivens had considered going into banking. He had no criminal record before 
he was charged with Weaver's death.

Kennedy was a computer science major who had taken a year off but was back 
in school when, police say, he was killed by mistake.

Bailey, who grew up in a suburb of Atlanta, was a bright kid, his relatives 
say. His parents, who both went to college, were expecting great things 
from him at HU.

All three Hampton residents charged in the crimes - none of them HU 
students - are convicted felons. Police are trying to figure out how these 
men may have been connected to the students.

Although Bailey started college with Weaver and McVay, he didn't get as far 
in school.

McMorris said Bailey's problems at HU began his freshman year, and the 
school "took steps to deal with him."

Bailey was suspended twice in 2002, first for misconduct and then for 
academic reasons, HU officials said. According to court documents, by 2002 
he already had convictions for breaking into a dorm room and stealing a 
laptop computer. When he was convicted, he was working at the university 
cafeteria.

While living off campus in Hampton, Bailey wracked up a number of 
convictions for traffic violations, such as driving 61 miles per hour in a 
35-mph zone. But before his murder charges, he had no convictions for 
violent crimes.

Hampton lawyer Tim Clancy, who is representing Bailey, said he thinks he 
knows who shot McVay and Weaver, and it wasn't his client. He wouldn't say 
who he suspects.

"From Saadi's perspective, he comes from an excellent family and certainly 
would not be expected to participate in such aberrant behavior," Clancy said.

After his arrest, Bailey's uncle, Frank C. Franklin, the man who lived next 
door to McVay's family, said the incident disturbed both families.

Bailey's mother and father - a legal assistant and a retired chemist - 
declined to be interviewed for this story.

"Saadi was a beautiful kid," Franklin said, adding that he often thought he 
would have liked to switch places with his nephew who had "the whole world 
ahead of him."

But something happened along the way in Bailey's journey.

"Young kids are doing drugs, even kids from good families, kids in 
college," Franklin said. "Hampton college is sort of a prestigious black 
university, and they are doing drugs over there."

McMorris denies that drug use among HU students is widespread.

"Hampton University is not a haven for drug use," he said. "Those young men 
who were involved in those activities all lived off campus. The university 
cannot stop people from doing stupid things."

Bivens' family could not be located by the Daily Press and did not attend a 
recent hearing to determine whether the former student would be released on 
bail. His lawyer, Kenneth Melvin, did not return phone calls. Once 
arrested, Bivens was suspended from the university.

In court, Melvin said authorities don't believe Bivens was the shooter, so 
that leaves the question: Who shot Weaver, McVay and Kennedy?

Police and officials from the Hampton Commonwealth Attorney's office won't 
give specifics about who they think did the shooting. But that detail may 
be irrelevant to a conviction. In Virginia, a person doesn't have to pull 
the trigger to be charged with and convicted of murder.

"You can be the getaway driver or the lookout," said prosecutor Matt 
Hoffman, "and be just as guilty of the principal offense, whether it's a 
murder or robbery."

Since the shootings, McVay, the only shooting victim who survived, has gone 
home to Georgia and is figuring out what to do with the rest of his life.

Before he left the area, a Hampton police officer arrested him on suspicion 
of driving drunk in February before Weaver's death. The officer who stopped 
him at a fast-food restaurant noticed a pistol on the floorboard of McVay's 
Acura SUV and charged him with having a concealed weapon. He was also 
charged with possession of marijuana.

McVay said he decided last summer to buy a .45-caliber pistol for protection.

"My mother and brother had both been robbed and our house was twice 
burglarized," he said. "My best friend's brother was almost shot, and two 
of his friends were shot at Howard that year, and Hampton didn't have the 
best reputation."

He was with his mother when he bought the pistol at a gun show.

"I wish I didn't have to buy a gun," McVay said, "but I felt I would be 
safer with it than without it because of everything that had been going on."

He was convicted of the DUI charge and fined $355. For the remaining 
charges, the judge won't make a decision until 2005.

A couple days after his arrest, McVay received a letter from HU, notifying 
him that he was permanently suspended for violating a school policy that 
prohibits a student from having drugs or a firearm on or off campus.

He would have graduated with honors in May.

Kennedy, just a year shy of graduation, was buried in a private ceremony in 
Washington, D.C.

A scholarship fund has been set up in Chris Weaver's name to help other 
students get the education he never will.

Bailey and Bivens are in jail awaiting trial for murder. If convicted, they 
could spend the rest of their lives in prison.
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