19-year-old charged with Raleigh murder also indicted in double murder on NCCU campus

A 19-year-old in Wake County jail on a murder charge now faces charges in connection with the shooting deaths of two men last month on the North Carolina Central University campus, Durham police said Tuesday.

Dezmond Armond Harper, 19, of Durham, was indicted by a Durham County grand jury on two counts of first-degree murder Monday. Police say the charges stem from the shooting deaths of Shamori Brown and Tavis Rhodes.

Harper already is in Wake County Detention Center on unrelated charges, police said. He was charged Sept. 22, with murder in the death of Jewel Quandahor Dadzie, 26, who died after being shot Sept. 7, in a Brier Creek apartment complex, The News & Observer previously reported. Kyle Leonuse Brown, 21, and Richard William Jefferson, 21, of Durham, also were charged in Dadzie’s death.

In the case at NCCU, Durham police did not provide details about Harper’s role in the shooting.

On Sept. 20, police investigated a shooting around 9 p.m. in the parking lot next to the Latham Parking Deck on East Lawson Street.

When they arrived, police said they found Brown and Rhodes had been shot. Both were taken to the hospital, where they died.

Police said then that the incident “does not appear to be random.”

At the time, police didn’t identify any suspects but said they were looking for a suspect’s vehicle — a black Nissan Altima.

NCCU shooting rattles campus

The shooting, which took place during a home football game, prompted police to lock down nearby O’Kelly Riddick Stadium and rattled the NCCU community.

Two days later, NCCU Chancellor Johnson O. Akinleye called a press conference to plead for more help from city, county and state officials to address violent crime beyond the campus borders, The N&O reported.

“This press conference is a call to action,” he said. “We will not live in fear or have our health and well being at risk due to gun violence and crime around our community. It has to stop today.”

He said campus police’s response helped save lives that night. And while the campus itself may be safe, Akinleye said they can’t help what happens outside campus borders.

“We are a public institution and an open campus,” he said. “We cannot close up our campus with iron fences and gates.”

On Sept. 21, hours before the chancellor’s press conference, a man was fatally shot in a home in the 500 block of Dupree Street, also near the university campus, The N&O reported.

None of the people killed in the shootings near campus were affiliated with the university, police have said.

Harper also is charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, second-degree kidnapping and breaking and/or entering in Orange County for a Sept. 5 incident, according to the Raleigh/Wake City-County Bureau of Identification.

Staff writers Virginia Bridges and Kate Murphy contributed to this report.

This story was originally published October 26, 2021 at 8:31 PM with the headline "19-year-old charged with Raleigh murder also indicted in double murder on NCCU campus."

Jessica Banov

The News & Observer

919-829-4831

Jessica Banov is an editor and audience growth specialist at The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun. She is the night Breaking News Editor for McClatchy’s Southeast region and The N&O’s Features Editor. She also serves as The News & Observer’s intern program coordinator.