‘He just got here.’ NC Central University freshman shot and killed in Durham
Robert Moore stood near candles burned to the ground Tuesday morning, beside a pool of blood where he had kept vigil since driving from South Carolina at 2:30 a.m.
“He just got here,” Moore said of his cousin, Trevor Malik VanDyke.
“He didn’t know anybody up here but the football team,” Moore said. “(He was) somebody that’s not in the streets, don’t smoke, don’t do any of that. He was strictly sports.”
VanDyke, a defensive back for the N.C. Central University football team, was fatally shot Monday night, two miles south of the campus.
He was 20 years old, police said.
Officers found his body in the 4600 block of Industry Lane around 9:30 p.m. Investigators think he was shot at Campus Crossing Apartments, 1400 E. Cornwallis Road, and drove to Industry Lane, according to a statement from the Durham Police Department.
“The incident does not appear to have been random,” according to the statement.
No charges had been filed as of noon Tuesday, though ABC11, The News & Observer’s media partner, reported that police officers with their guns drawn had entered the apartment complex around 7:30 a.m.
“The investigation is active and investigators are following leads,” the release stated.
Chancellor says campus shaken
In a statement, NCCU Chancellor Johnson O. Akinleye said the campus community was shaken by the first-year student’s death.
“It is with a very heavy heart that I share the news that Mr. Trevor VanDyke was killed on March 2, 2020, in a shooting at an off campus apartment complex,” the statement said. “He entered NCCU in August 2019 and was a graduate of Clayton High School in Clayton, N.C. Mr. VanDyke’s death is currently being investigated as a homicide by the Durham Police Department.”
Junior Imani Johnson woke up to the news and canceled a planned rally to celebrate Super Tuesday. The 20-year-old chairs the political action and civic engagement committee for student government.
“It just did not feel right to push an event this morning when all of the news was just breaking,” she said. “Students were just figuring it out and trying to figure out ‘Do I go to class?’ and ‘Am I going to be OK today?’”
N.C. Central is a big institution but feels like a family, she said. Students continued with another election event Tuesday afternoon before a vigil to celebrate VanDyke’s life at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the student union. Staff from the offices of Student Health, Counseling Services and Spiritual Development and Dialogue were being made available to support members of the NCCU community.
Meanwhile, tributes poured in on social media.
“My heart is heavy,” friend Renada Archibald on several sites. “I was asked to speak with him before he left for college. ... I told him that he would do great things! He had a beautiful smile and his answer to everything I said was “Yes ma’am. I can not imagine his mother’s pain today, but my heart is with her and all of Trevor’s family.”
“Please stop the senseless violence,” she wrote.
Coaches remember ‘great young man’
VanDyke was a redshirt last season and didn’t see any action for the Eagles, but he had already fit into the team’s dynamic.
“We lost a great young man last night,” Coach Trei Oliver said. “We prayed together. We talked about it’s going to hurt and it’s going to be a tough process to get through it, but we’re going to have to just lean on each other. We’ll get through it, it’s going to be tough, but with prayer and guys leaning on each other, we’ll be able to get through it.”
VanDyke’s death has devastated the team, Oliver said. Just last week, the Eagles held a family night where the team chaplain broke players into groups to discuss their passions. VanDyke wanted to be a real estate agent and an entrepreneur.
“One thing that stood out, what the guys got from him, (was) he just enjoyed life, was just passionate about life,” Oliver said. “He touched a lot of guys on the team for him just being here for a year, and we are definitely going to miss him — and it’s just sad.”
VanDyke played varsity football for the Clayton Comets. On Twitter, he’d posted highlights from his high school career, including several interceptions with commentary such as “Grindin’” and “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop.”
“Trevor was a top-notch person,” said Hunter Jenks, who coached VanDyke during his varsity seasons. “He will walk into a room and his smile would just make it better. Talking with the coaches at Central, they said he was doing really well and was starting to turn the corner. They were excited about him there.”
Jenks said VanDyke didn’t play football until his junior year, but immediately found a role on the team, even after suffering an injury on the basketball court.
“At Clayton when he got on the field he played fantastic. He never complained about his role at all,” Jenks said. “His junior year in basketball he tore his ACL, so he missed the first half of his senior year (in football), but it never got him down, never defeated him. That just speaks to the level of person he was, how hard he worked and how he overcame stuff like that.”
190 people shot in Durham last year
There were 652 shooting incidents reported to Durham police in 2019; 190 people were injured, including 32 who died. As of Sunday, there had been three homicides in Durham this year, making VanDyke’s death the fourth, according to the Police Department website.
Monday’s shooting came the same night the City Council approved hiring six more officers for the Police Department and bylaws for a new community safety task force.
“The issue of gun violence continues to ripple through this city and it’s hard to breathe in fear of the next,” City Council member DeDreana Freeman said in a public Facebook post Tuesday morning. “We have some much at risk with our black male children.”
Anyone with information in Monday’s shooting is asked to call Investigator J. Mitchell at 919-560-4440 ext. 29335 or CrimeStoppers at 919-683-1200. Crimestoppers pays cash rewards for anonymous tips that help solve crimes.
Staff writer Mark Schultz contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 3, 2020 at 8:03 AM.