THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 8, 1995 TAG: 9503080513
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
A few hours before freshman Gerard Edwards was shot to death in his dorm at Norfolk State University, he barricaded the locked door with an end table, Placed a baseball bat nearby and told his roommate ``he would be ready'' if a rival gang of New York students came for him. He was wrong.
Edwards, from Washington, hung out with other Washington-area students who called themselves the ``D.C. Boys.''
The five NSU students who were indicted in his murder called New York City their home. They were called the ``718 Crew,'' referring to the area code of New York's boroughs.
Deadly tensions existed between these gangs, testimony indicated during the first day of trial for Shamont Burrell - Edwards' former roommate and the alleged trigger man. Fights sprang up, on campus and off.
In the early hours of Jan. 18, 1994, one of these fights resulted in the death of Edwards and the wounding of his roommate, Ronald Richardson, according to prosecutors and court records.
``If you was from New York, you hung with New Yorkers,'' Richardson said Tuesday during the first day of testimony. ``If you was from D.C., you hung with people from there. I was from New Jersey, so I didn't fit into either group.''
Not that this saved him. That morning, one or more New Yorkers broke into the room shared by the two freshmen on the second floor of Samuel F. Scott Hall. The intruders sprayed the room with bullets - revenge for the night before, when the D.C. Boys bested the 718 Crew in a fight at a roller-skating rink in Newport News.
Edwards, hit up to 10 times, died quickly. Richardson, shot in the abdomen, later underwent surgery for the removal of his left kidney.
``Does this sound like a college campus to you?'' prosecutor Phillip Evans asked the jury during opening statements. ``The evidence will show that this is the reality at Norfolk State University.''
Five days after the shooting, Burrell was arrested in his parents' home in Richmond and charged with the murder of Edwards and the wounding of Richardson, both 18 at the time.
But as the months dragged into summer, four more New Yorkers - who dropped out of school after the shooting - would be charged: Christopher Skinner, Derrick Washington, Anthony Britton and James Powers.
On Monday, Skinner was convicted of misdemeanor accessory after the fact and conspiracy to commit malicious wounding, a plea agreement made in exchange for his testimony in Burrell's case. Washington has yet to be tried, but records suggest he, too, will make a plea agreement in exchange for his testimony. Britton and Powers are fugitives.
In motions during Burrell's trial Tuesday, Evans said at least one student witness has been threatened.
Several students who will testify asked not to have their photographs taken by the media. The tension between groups continues, Evans indicated. Students still feel the danger is real.
During his opening statement, Michael Morchower, Burrell's Richmond attorney, tried to cast doubt on Burrell's guilt. Richardson could never actually identify his roommate's killer, he argued. The co-defendants gave conflicting statements. No one ever found the murder weapon.
Richardson admitted that he could not see details of the assailant when the door flew open at 2:45 a.m. But he remembered other details.
``I heard a loud crack . . . and the door flew open,'' Richardson quietly said. ``I saw flashes coming out of a gun. . . . I saw Gerard get hit. He tried to get up, then he fell back down.''
Richardson sat up in bed and said, ``Oh my God,'' then the gunman turned the 9mm handgun on him.
``I don't remember the shots, but then I looked down at myself and I was bleeding. I was bleeding from my stomach. . . . I crawled out of the bed to the hallway.''
As paramedics rushed Richardson through the dorm's crowded lobby, Burrell came up and said, ``Hang in there,'' Richardson recalled.
They were freshmen, four to a room, during the fall semester, Richardson said. But then the fourth student moved out, and, in October or November, Burrell - who said he grew up in Yonkers - moved in with New Yorkers on the first floor. That left Edwards and Richardson alone in room 225.
The two groups had problems, but the flashpoint was the fight at the roller rink about 3 a.m. on Jan. 17. That morning, Edwards left the rink with his friend Madison Jones and other Washington students. Suddenly, a fight started between eight students in the two groups.
The former roommates, Edwards and Burrell, came to blows, Jones remembered. Edwards won.
But that didn't end it. Jan. 17 was Martin Luther King Day - a day off from classes.
Burrell and the other New Yorkers allegedly spent the day planning to get even.
Edwards apparently had a premonition of disaster when he barricaded the door and placed the baseball bat near his head. But Richardson said Burrell still knew the combination for their door lock. All dorm doors had a keypunch combination, which hadn't been changed since the two former roommates moved out. Burrell had used the combination to get in several times, Richardson said.
Early on Jan. 18, Skinner told police, Burrell told him and the other New Yorkers: ``Let's go in that room and f--- them up.''
Minutes later, gunfire broke the late-night silence in Scott Hall. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff
Shamont Burrell, former roommate of the slain freshman, was the
alleged trigger man. He was arrested five days after the shooting at
his parents' home in Richmond.
KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING YOUTH GANGS INJURIES
ARREST TRIAL by CNB