By KEITH UPCHURCH
kupchurch@heraldsun.com; 419-6612
DURHAM – Police have charged a 26-year-old man with murder in the fatal shooting of a recent student at N.C. Central University who was described Tuesday by a neighbor as a music lover who was friendly and caring.
The victim, 24-year-old Joey Derek Squire, was killed Monday at his apartment complex, Bainbridge In The Park Apartments off Cornwallis Road in southern Durham.
Police arrested Brandon Tyrel Jones of Southpoint Crossing in Durham Monday night and charged him with murder. He had an initial court appearance Tuesday and remains in the Durham County Jail without bond.
The shooting happened early Monday afternoon at 2907 Bainbridge Drive.
Police said they were called about 12:51 p.m. to the apartment complex and found Squire, who had been shot, in the breezeway. They said the two men had been involved in an ongoing dispute which led to the shooting.
It was Durham’s first homicide of 2012.
A nearby neighbor who had known Squire for about a year said she saw his body lying on the concrete breezeway.
“He was a really good guy,” Ann, who asked that her last name not be used, said. “He studied at Central, played the saxophone. He was not the type of person that you would ever think could get mixed up in this type of thing. It was really a senseless act on the part of the killer.”
She speculated that the slaying involved “a crime of passion – not Joey and the guy, but a third party.”
Ann said Squire told her recently that he had decided to take a break from school “and try to pursue his own endeavors. He thought maybe he would travel, play music, and stuff like that. Every time I would come to my apartment, I would hear him in his apartment practicing his saxophone.”
A spokeswoman at NCCU said Squire was a student last fall, but was not enrolled for the spring term. He was a senior studying jazz.
The neighbor said she didn’t hear the gunfire, but said some neighbors heard what sounded like three or four shots.
“I think it occurred at the door [to his apartment], she said. “I believe there was a scuffle in the hallway, and there’s a bullet hole right there,” pointing to a hole in an outside wall beside the door. “And he collapsed on his back right before he got to the stairs.”
Ann said Squire, who lived by himself, attended church regularly and played in the church band.
“He was pretty shy and quiet, but friendly, and he knew a lot of the neighbors,” she said. “A lot of us were out here [Monday], kind of mourning his loss, standing around to see him off. He will be missed.”
