N.C. mayor calls for investigation of repeat offender
By: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Issue date: 3/20/08 Section: Campus
DURHAM, N.C. - Small in number but frequent in infractions, repeat offenders are responsible for much of the nation's crime, and most recently for the deaths of two college students.
Following the deaths of Duke University graduate student Abhijit Mahato and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill senior Eve Carson, Durham, N.C., Mayor Bill Bell called Monday night for a formal investigation into the January release from custody of a Durham teenager, Laurence Lovette, who has been charged in both murders.
City Manager Patrick Baker will lead the investigation, and a report will be presented at the Durham County Courthouse April 8.
"I want to know what the judge's role was, what the district attorney's role was, what the police department's role was, what the bail was under which he was released," Bell said.
The murders garnered local and, in Carson's case, national attention in recent weeks.
Mahato, a 29-year-old from India studying computational mechanics, was killed after being shot point-blank in the head in his home in The Anderson Apartments Jan. 18.
Carson, the 22-year-old student body president at UNC, was found dead a short distance from the school's North Campus March 5 after being shot in the head.
With Lovette's indictment Monday, many, including Bell, are questioning whether or not the murders could have been prevented.
Following the deaths of Duke University graduate student Abhijit Mahato and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill senior Eve Carson, Durham, N.C., Mayor Bill Bell called Monday night for a formal investigation into the January release from custody of a Durham teenager, Laurence Lovette, who has been charged in both murders.
City Manager Patrick Baker will lead the investigation, and a report will be presented at the Durham County Courthouse April 8.
"I want to know what the judge's role was, what the district attorney's role was, what the police department's role was, what the bail was under which he was released," Bell said.
The murders garnered local and, in Carson's case, national attention in recent weeks.
Mahato, a 29-year-old from India studying computational mechanics, was killed after being shot point-blank in the head in his home in The Anderson Apartments Jan. 18.
Carson, the 22-year-old student body president at UNC, was found dead a short distance from the school's North Campus March 5 after being shot in the head.
With Lovette's indictment Monday, many, including Bell, are questioning whether or not the murders could have been prevented.
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