news-record.com

GREENSBORO - Blood stained the concrete in the corridor of the Campus Courtyard apartments, where police found 22-year-old Dennis Hayle shot to death Sunday morning.

Police found Hayle after responding to a call of a shooting at 3:35 a.m. Sunday, according to police reports.

Hayle was pronounced dead at the scene at 805 Homeland Ave. His death was the third homicide uncovered in four days in Greensboro.

Hayle was a student at N.C. A&T studying criminal justice and political science and was a native of Hempstead, N.Y.

The university will provide counseling for students and is accepting condolences on its Web site, www.ncat.edu. You can read the comments directly at www.ncat.edu/memorial/hayle/view.php

"The university is heartbroken as the result of what occurred with Dennis Hayle," University Chancellor Stanley Battle said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are certainly with the family of Dennis Hayle."

Uche Byrd, a graduate of A&T and Hayle's Omega Psi Phi fraternity brother, said Hayle was due to graduate this semester.

"I saw him growing into a young man," Byrd said.

Byrd said Hayle had a natural talent for drawing and re-created the fraternity's shield.

Hayle volunteered as a mentor and served breakfast at the Greensboro Urban Ministry soup kitchen.

"He didn't get into it with nobody. I'm so shocked. I don't know what happened," Byrd said. "He had such a bright future. ... The statistics for minority men aren't good, but he was beating them."

Neighbors said Hayle was living at the Campus Courtyard apartment building, where he was found Sunday morning.

Apartment residents said they did not hear any disturbance before the shooting.

"We heard the gunshots," said neighbor and A&T junior Kendra Webb. "We didn't think nothing about it because it happens all the time."

Last weekend, a man was shot in the leg in the street outside the three-story student apartments, Webb said.

"It's ridiculous. I want to leave," she said.

Police did not provide additional information about the homicide investigation.

Police ask anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 373-1000 or the criminal investigation division at 373-2255.

Contact Amanda Lehmert at 373-7075 or amanda.lehmert@news-record.com