news-record.com

Four days. Three deaths.

The first homicides of the year in Greensboro came in dizzying succession last week.

On Thursday afternoon, police found 37-year-old Octavius Orlando Wilson fatally shot on a street near Claremont Courts Apartments. Hours later, they discovered the body of Rhonda Ann Wall in her apartment off Merritt Drive.

Sad to day, the violence hadn't ended. On early Sunday morning, 22-year-old N.C. A&T senior Dennis Stuart Hayle died after being shot near his Campus Courtyard apartment. Friends and teachers struggled to understand why.

Hayle's life was no more precious than any other. But it's especially hurtful when a such a bright young spirit is snuffed before it can make its mark in the world.

"He was a young man that met no strangers," A&T Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Sullivan Welborne said Monday. Hayle was active in student government and served breakfast at the Greensboro Urban Ministry's soup kitchen. The West Hempstead, N.Y., native was set to graduate later this year.

Even sadder, one resident of the apartment complex, which sits near the doorstep of the university, said the sound of gunshots there is not uncommon. "We didn't think nothing about it because it happens all the time," A&T junior Kendra Webb told the News & Record.

If it truly does happen "all the time," that is unacceptable.

A&T officials said Monday that the campus police are responsible for campus safety. The Greensboro police handle off-campus incidents. No matter. This issue belongs to the school, the apartments' management and city police. In fact, it belongs to all of us.

According to a written release, school officials have met before with landlords to address student safety. They should meet some more -- and involve city police -- in an open and earnest discussion.

The sound of gunfire should not become merely a fact of life -- and death -- near campus. Or anywhere else, for that matter.