Shootings leave officials, students searching for campus security

Two Tucson men were shot shortly before midnight Feb. 13 in an alley near the Park Student Union as a Delta Sigma Theta-sponsored dance was taking place inside. Minutes later, police arrested two people in connection with the shooting and found a semi-automatic handgun and revolver in their car.

At a March 1997 party sponsored by the National Society of Black Engineers, a man fired several shots in the Park Union's west parking lot but did not injure anyone.

At a party hosted by students identifying themselves as members of Kappa Alpha Psi, which wasn't a UA-recognized organization at the time, a man was shot in the buttocks while standing in a parking lot near where the party was held, at the Theta Tau fraternity house, 1030 N. Martin Ave.

Assistant Dean of Students Veda Hunn said she has helped organize a series of meetings to discuss options to make the probability of violence at campus-sponsored events less likely.

Hunn said the meetings have not yet turned up any new procedures to be followed every time a dance or party is held on campus, but that is the purpose.

"What we're attempting to do is come up with a dance policy that faces issues of safety and security," she said.

The most recent meeting occurred in April, when the National Pan-Hellenic Council, planning to sponsor a May 9 dance at the Memorial Student Union, discussed points of safety with Hunn, Residence Life officials, university police Chief Harry Hueston II and student leaders.

What can be done, and is done currently, is to limit access to parties by drawing up guest lists and restricting "who you advertise to," Hunn said.

The role of police and security agencies at parties were also discussed, as well as how to finance them, Hunn said.

"If it's having to do with safety, the students don't mind having officers there," she said. "When you talk about predominantly African American groups, you're talking about smaller numbers. These groups do not have a large operating budget - they pay for off-duty officers (to work the dances), and that does not come cheap."

Hueston said the students at recent meetings wanted to know what assistance the University of Arizona Police Department could give when they have a dance on campus, as well as what could be done differently than at past events where violence did occur.

"The students were very receptive," Hueston said. "They first didn't know that we had some options available."

The options, he said, include increasing police coverage at the dance itself, bringing in an event security team such as Event Management Inc., which can provide hand-held metal detectors at the door.

Other resources involve utilizing police agencies that specialize in gang activity, such as the statewide Gang Intelligence Team Enforcement Model task force, which a university police officer is assigned to, and also bringing in the Tucson Police Department's gang units, Hueston said.

Police said the February Park Union shooting was gang-related. There have been no other dances held at the Union since, Hueston said.

The two men arrested in connection with the shooting are not affiliated with the UA, and sorority officials said days after the party that none of them were inside the actual event at any time because of the enforcement of the guest list.

Suspects Osahafo J. Brewer, 17, of the 3100 block of North Wilson Street, and Xamaca L. Carpenter, 20, of the 1900 block of East Hidalgo Vista, are still in custody at the Pima County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bond each. They are awaiting a June 30 trial in Pima County Superior Court on charges of felony endangerment, attempted murder and aggravated assault.

Hueston said it is impossible to keep non-student troublemakers from coming to UA-sponsored events.

"One of our goals as an institution is to invite our community to our functions, and so we are a very open campus," Hueston said. "Anybody can come here to attend an event. And when you invite anybody in, then you have to say, well if we invite anybody in, there will be and could always be the risk of something occurring."

Hueston added that, although people cannot be stopped from coming on campus, they will be expected behave according to community standards.

"And when behavior occurs that falls outside of those standards, it's going to be dealt with," he said.