4A
NEWS
CRIME
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2008
North Carolina student president shot
BY JOEDY MCCREARY ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The University of North Carolina student body president was found shot to death on a city street in what police said Thursday appeared to be a random crime, stunning the communi
Carson
students gather on campus during a memorial for University of North Carolina student body president Eve Chapel in Chapel Hill, N.C., Thursday.
A student writes a note on a wall during a memorial for University of North Carolina student body president Eve Carson in Chapel Hill, N.C., Thursday. Memorial services were held on campus.
Thousands of students gathered silently on campus to mourn Eve Marie Carson, whose body was discovered about a mile away early Wednesday. The 22-year-old senior from Athens, Ga., had been shot several times, including at least once in
nity who knew her well.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
the head, police said. Officials said there are no suspects and no arrests have been made.
"We have lost someone whom we cherish and love," university Chancellor
James Moeser told a massive crowd on the school's Polk Place quad. "We're all in a state of shock."
Police found Carson's vehicle, a blue 2005 Toyota Highlander with Georgia plates, about a mile from where her body was found after receiving a tip Thursday afternoon from a witness who spotted it near the main drag through the popular college town about 45 minutes west of Paleyish.
Toby Rice, of Chapel Hill, said his wife discovered the car and called 911.
"We saw it on the news, and we heard the woman is the president of the student body, and she goes, 'Oh my God, I just found the car'" Rice said
"We have lost someone whom we cherish and love. We're all in a state of shock."
to be a random act. Police had no evidence other than her car, and the medical examiner said they was no indication that Carson had been sexually assaulted.
Curran said police had been in contact with authorities in Alabama investigating the killing of a female student at Auburn University, but added that the cases do not appear to be connected.
Moeser said there was nothing to link Carson's slaying to anyone on North Carolina's campus.
Carson was last seen alive 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, when she stayed behind at home to do schoolwork while her roommates went out.
"My information is she was an extraordinarily busy woman and it wasn't unusual for her to go to the office in the middle of the night," Curran said.
JAMES MOESER
UNC chancellor
Moeser said he got a call early Thursday informing him that Carson was the victim.
Carson's body was found on the street at an intersection after neighbors reported hearing shots about 5 a.m. Wednesday in an upscale residential area. It was not clear why she was in the area, which does not have student housing.
"It was shocking," he said. "I sat down and said 'Oh my God.' I couldn't
believe this."
Police publicly identified the shooting victim as Carson on Thursday, and police Chief Brian Curran said her death appeared
On campus, students passed out daisies and carnations, and large boards were erected for students to leave written memories. A candlelight vigil was held at The Pit, a popular campus gathering spot. Dozens of counselors from both North Carolina and nearby Duke University were available to talk to students.
"Eve was just the most wonderful young woman you would ever want to know."
"The strange thing, how the last
MAXINE EASOM Clarke Central High School principal
time I saw her we made the types of plans where you know you're going to run into someone," said Keegan DeLancie, a senior from Los Angeles and fellow Morehead scholar.
Carson was a prestigious Morehead-Cain scholar and a North Carolina Fellow, taking part in a four-year leadership development program for undergraduates. A pre-med student, she majored in political science and biology, taught science at a Chapel Hill elementary school, studied abroad in Cuba, and spent summers volunteering in Ecuador, Egypt and Ghana as part of a school program.
Moeser said he last saw Carson on Tuesday, at the Tar Heels men's basketball game against Florida State.
"This is a tragedy magnified and multiplied by the number and depth of relationships, many relationships that Eve Carson had on this campus," Moeser told the students. "This enormous throng is a testament to the many and deep relationships. Eve Carson personified the Carolina spirit."
A man answering the phone at her father Bob Carson's business, Carson Advisory Inc. in Athens, said the family had no comment.
Maxine Easom, the principal of Clarke Central High School in Athens, where Carson graduated as valedictorian in 2004 and was also elected student body president, said she and staff members were devastated.
"Eve was just the most wonderful young woman you would ever want to know." Easom said. "She was brilliant. She was absolutely beautiful. Everything she did was aimed at helping other people. It's one of the greatest tragedies I've ever known. Eve was one of the young women who could change the world."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mallory Cash, left, and Andrew Coonin, friends of UNC student body president Eve Marie Carson, who was shot to death on Wednesday, mourn her death at a gathering on campus.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Medics evacuate a wounded Israeli from the site of a shooting attack in Jerusalem on Thursday. Two gunmen infiltrated a rabbinical seminary at the entrance of Jerusalem and opened fire after nightfall Thursday, killing at least seven people and rescue workers said.
INTERNATIONAL
Eight Israelis killed in seminary shooting
BY ARON HELLER
Associated Press
JERUSALEM — A gunman entered the library of a rabbinical seminary and opened fire on a crowded nighttime study session Thursday, killing eight people and wounding nine before he was slain, police and rescue workers said. It was the first major militant attack in Jerusalem in more than four years.
Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip praised the operation in a statement, and thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of Gaza to celebrate.
The day's violence, which also included a deadly ambush of an army patrol near Israel's border with Gaza, was likely to complicate attempts by Egypt to arrange a truce between Israel and Palestinian militants. The U.S. is backing the Egyptian effort.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev and moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the shooting, But Regev said the Palestinian government must take steps against the extremists — not just denounce their attacks.
"Tonight's massacre in Jerusalem is a defining moment," he said. "It is clear that those people celebrating this bloodshed have shown themselves to be not only the enemies of Israel but of all of humanity."
Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice, who only on Wednesday persuaded Abbas to return to peace talks with Israel, called the attack an "act of terror and depravity."
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the attacker walked through the seminary's main gate and entered the library, where witnesses said some 80 people were gathered. He carried an assault rifle and pistol, and used both weapons in the attack. Rosenfeld said at least six empty bullet clips were found on the floor.
Israeli defense officials said the attacker came from east Jerusalem, the predominantly Palestinian section of the city. Jerusalem's Palestinians have Israeli ID cards that give them freedom of movement in Israel, unlike Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
David Simchon, head of the seminary, said the students had been preparing a celebration for the new month on the Jewish calendar, which includes the holiday of Purim. "We were planning to have a Purim party here tonight and instead we had a massacre," he told Channel 2 TV.
Two hours after the shooting, police found the body of the eighth victim. Rescue workers said nine people were wounded, three seriously.
Yehuda Meshi Zahav, head of the Zaka rescue service, entered the library after the attack. "The whole building looked like a slaughterhouse. The floor was covered in blood. The students were in class at the time of the attack," he said. "The floors are littered with holy books covered in blood."
Witnesses described a terrifying scene during the shooting, with students jumping out windows to escape.
One of the students, Yitzhak Dadon, said he shot the attacker twice in the head. "I laid on the roof of the study hall, cocked my gun and waited for him. He came out of the library spraying automatic fire," he said.
Police said an Israeli soldier in the area then shot the man dead. After
the shooting, hundreds of seminary students demonstrated outside the building, screaming for revenge and chanting, "Death to Arabs."
The seminary is the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in the Kiryat Moshe quarter at the entrance to Jerusalem, a prestigious center of Jewish studies identified with the leadership of the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank.
It was founded by the late Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Hacohen Kook, the movement's spiritual founder, and serves some 400 high school students and young Israeli soldiers, and many of them carry arms.
INTERNATIONAL
Government red tape keeps food from Haitians
BY JONATHAN M. KATZ AND JENNIFER KAY Associated Press
ried about.
CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti — While millions of Haitians go hungry, containers full of food are stacking up in the nation's ports because of government red tape — leaving tons of beans, rice and other staples to rot under a sweltering sun or be devoured by vermin.
A government attempt to clean up a corrupt port system that has helped make Haiti a major conduit for Colombian cocaine has added new layers oi bureaucracy — and led to backlogs so severe they are being felt 600 miles away in Miami, where cargo shipments to Haiti have ground almost to a standstill.
The problems are depriving desperate people of donated food. Some are so poor they are forced to eat cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable oil to satisfy their hunger.
An Associated Press investigation found the situation is most severe in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city. One recent afternoon, garbage men shovelled a pile of rotting pinto beans that had turned gray and crumbled to dust as cockroaches and beetles scur-
"So many times, by the time (the food) gets out of customs it's expired and we're forced to burn it," said Susie Scott Krabacher, whose Colorado-based Mercy and Sharing Foundation has worked in Haiti for 14 years. "The food is there. It is available. It just can't get to the people."
The men had found the putrid cargo by following a stench through stacked shipping containers to one holding 40,000 pounds of beans. It had been in port since November.
Though it is unclear how much of Haiti's food supply is tied up in the port delays, the effects could be serious. Haiti imports about 75 percent of its food supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And there is little room for error in a country where the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reported that almost half the population was undernourished in 2002.
The U.N. World Food Program and large-scale U.S. rice growers say they have been able to get their food into Haiti by hiring local agents to handle bureaucratic procedures. But smaller charities, merchants and citizens have often been forced by the delays to throw away food or pay exorbitant fees.