Fresno State abuzz after fatal shooting
Fresno Bee 5/9/07
Brant Daniels, 19, collapsed in the arms of another Fresno State student after staggering away from his attacker late Monday night. Two others also were hit.
"We were clapping and trying to keep him awake, and that was when he lost all his breath," said Rion Spears, who cradled Daniels.
The shooting immediately captured national attention. Fresno State officials nearly closed the campus. Extra University Police officers were called in to help guard the campus. Students evacuated from the apartment complex huddled in the university dining center.
Twelve hours later, suspect Jonquel Brooks, 19, of Hayward turned himself in to police after shaving his head and changing clothes in what Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer characterized as an attempt to elude capture.
Authorities concluded he might have slipped away while police were cordoning off the complex.
In a message posted on a Fresno State Web site, President John Welty called the slaying "a senseless tragedy that affects all of us in the university community, especially with the memories of the Virginia Tech shootings so fresh in all our minds."
Last month, Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho randomly killed 32 students and professors before killing himself. In contrast, Dyer said, Brooks knew his victims, and there is no evidence that Brooks planned the shooting or intended to target anyone else.
Officials did not close the campus as police searched for Brooks. Dyer and Welty both said there was never any indication that anyone on campus was in danger.
Late-night gunfire
The incident began about 11 p.m. Monday in Apartment 126 at the University Village complex on Barstow Avenue, one block west of the campus.
Daniels, who reportedly grew up in south-central Los Angeles and was known for his ever-present smile, was visiting Drew Pfeiff, 22, and Roderick Buycks, 19. The three confronted Brooks about a PlayStation2 that had been stolen from them.
"They all pretty much shared it, and they went over there to confront [Brooks], and he was in denial," said Spears, a Fresno State sophomore and Brooks' roommate. "He just got upset for being accused, even though he did it, and he started shooting."
Spears said he was sitting in another apartment when Daniels burst in and fell to the floor. "He said, 'Quel shot me. Quel shot me.' "
Spears said Daniels had a gunshot wound to the chest.
"I tried to keep Brant standing, and I tried to hold him up and he collapsed," Spears said. Then Daniels appeared to take a last breath, he said. "We thought he was gone right there."
At 11:15 p.m., Fresno police received a 911 call.
Mike Eaton was returning to Apartment 127 after working out in the complex's gym when he heard a commotion next door.
"Being the end of school, I just assumed they were drunk and hanging out," Eaton said. But as he stepped into his apartment, he heard two loud pops. Realizing they were gunshots, he locked his door.
Kerry Crane, a 19-year-old Fresno State student and resident at University Village, heard girls screaming: "They shot him in the neck. They shot him in the neck."
Crane and her friends locked themselves in her room.
She said she would see Brooks around the apartment complex and had talked to him at several parties. "He was kind of weird," she said. "Not scary, but he was just different."
At 11:18 p.m., Fresno police arrived at the complex. They encountered large numbers of people running out of their rooms, yelling and pointing in different directions.
"It was mass pandemonium," Dyer said.
An ambulance rushed Daniels to Community Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 11:55 p.m.
Pfeiff and Buycks were treated for their wounds at a hospital and released.
Police began searching for Brooks and evacuating residents.
Fresno State sophomore Jamila Dugan, 19, said police had their guns drawn and pointed toward the ground.
"They told everyone to come out of their apartments with their hands up," Dugan said. "They told everyone to come out one by one."
Police told the residents there had been a shooting.
Dugan said she and Brooks are acquaintances. "I've known him since the start of school. I didn't think he was a killer."
Some evacuated in pajamas
The evacuees were first taken to the university dining center on campus and then to the dorms, authorities said. Many residents wore pajamas and didn't have shoes on. Fresno State officials handed out blankets.
At 1:30 a.m., Welty arrived at University Police headquarters and began communicating with Fresno police. Their talks would continue throughout the night.
"I was in constant communication with Chief Dyer," Welty said. "He did not believe there was any danger to the campus at any point and was aware of where the suspect was most of the time as the morning evolved."
Welty said the university took extra precautions in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings. But, he added, "it was clear as the night went on that this was an altercation between students and did not have any characteristics of the Virginia Tech incident."
Dyer said he was confident Brooks did not go to the Fresno State campus after the shooting, but he gave few details about why he was so sure.
At 2:50 a.m., university officials posted an alert on FresnoStateNews.com.
About 4 a.m., Brooks' mother -- who lives in Texas -- helped police begin talking with Brooks via cell phone, negotiating his surrender.
About 4:30 a.m., the university sent an e-mail to students, staff and faculty telling them about the shooting. That message also was posted at the Fresno State Web site, and the campus emergency radio station began broadcasting an audio version. The message also was available on an emergency hotline, said university spokeswoman Shirley Melikian Armbruster.
About 6:30 a.m., Fresno defense lawyer David Mugridge received the first of a series of phone calls from Brooks' family members. Mugridge said he doesn't know the family but believes they learned of him through an Internet phone directory. Said Mugridge: "It was my client's intent to surrender peacefully, because he and his family feared that police would shoot him."
Meanwhile, Brooks told police negotiators he had called a Fresno lawyer and that he would surrender at 9 a.m. at police headquarters downtown. But he didn't show up, and shortly afterward police determined that Brooks was not in the apartment complex.
When authorities made that discovery, Welty had to decide whether to shut down the university. He decided to keep the campus open. University Police Chief David Huerta said he was confident Brooks wasn't on campus.
"Had the police said we don't know where he's at, we would have closed the campus," said Huerta, who was out of town on business but closely monitored the situation.
Shooting is the talk of campus
As the day began Tuesday, the slaying was the talk of campus. Jane Carver, who works in the university bookstore, said she immediately started thinking about the Virginia Tech shootings.
"I was definitely concerned about coming in to work," Carver said. "When I logged on this morning and read that e-mail, it was pretty eerie."
Meanwhile, attorney Mugridge met with Brooks' father, Silas Brooks of Hayward, at police headquarters.
"Let's go find your son," Mugridge said he told Brooks as they headed toward Fresno State.
Mugridge said he hadn't yet spoken with Jonquel Brooks, but that he and the father were talking to "an unknown intermediary" who said the suspect would meet them at Peach and Olive avenues in southeast Fresno.
Mugridge said he and Dyer hashed out the surrender plan at the police command center near the university. Two Fresno police detectives then got in Mugridge's car with Silas Brooks, and the four drove to an apartment complex at Peach and Olive and waited for the suspect.
But he didn't appear. Mugridge asked the officers to drive away in his car.
"Once they left, he showed up," Mugridge said. It was about 11:30 a.m.
Dyer said a woman was with Jonquel Brooks. Dyer did not identify the woman but said investigators would interview her to determine her role.
The suspect hugged his father, and they spoke privately for a few minutes. Mugridge declined to say what the father and son talked about.
"He looked dazed," Mugridge said of the suspect.
The lawyer told his client to invoke his Miranda rights against self-incrimination. Mugridge called Fresno police detective Brad Alcorn, who was driving the lawyer's car, to come and pick them up.
"He surrendered peacefully," Mugridge said. The detectives cuffed the suspect's hands behind his back but asked him no questions, Mugridge said.
The five drove to police headquarters.
Mugridge said there could be a case for self-defense because Brooks has a grazing wound on his upper right leg. Police said the wound was self-inflicted and happened by accident during the shooting.
Brooks has been charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder. He is being held in Fresno County Jail in lieu of $3 million bail. Brooks has no criminal record, Mugridge said.
Classes were held Tuesday as usual, and no extra campus security was planned today, officials said.
Past violence
Past gun-violence cases involving Fresno State students:
Sept. 17, 2005: Lyle McDowell, 22, a Fresno State student and member of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity, is arrested after allegedly firing a shotgun into the air outside the fraternity house.
April 27, 2004: Former Fresno State basketball player Terry Pettis, 19, fatally shoots Fresno City College student and golfer Rene Shannon Abbott, 18. Her boyfriend was shot in the leg after Pettis confronted them with a gun while they sat in a car. Pettis later was convicted of murder and attempted robbery.
March 17, 1998: Former Fresno State basketball player Avondre Jones and Bulldog recruit Kenny Brunner are accused of threatening another young man with samurai swords, and Jones is accused of putting a gun to the victim's face and threatening to shoot. Felony charges against Brunner were later dismissed.