By: E&P Staff and The Associated Press Authorities investigated Friday the deaths of a Florida A&M University student journalist and 20-year-old man, whose bodies were found Thanksgiving Day. They concluded that they died in a murder-suicide.
Nefertiti Nicole Williams, 20, and Shundavian Marquis Brooks, 20, were found in a two-story home where they lived in an upscale residential area about 10 miles from the Florida A&M campus.
Williams was the news editor of the Famuan, the university's three-time-a-week newspaper.
Each died of a gunshot wound to the head.
James Hawkins, dean of FAMU's School of Journalism and graphic Communication, called Williams a model student.
"I'm stunned to believe she had an enemy in the world," Hawkins told the Tallahassee Democrat.
The violent crimes unit of the Leon County Sheriff's Department was investigating, watch commander Lt. Rory Robbins said Friday.
Bob Gabordi, executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat, posted the following on a blog at the paper today.
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It is always stunning to get those calls, even though I?ve gotten them dozens of times before.
News happens, whether it is a holiday or other special occasion. It doesn?t care. Just like yesterday, when Kent Nichols, head of our copy desk, called to tell me two people were found dead as a result of what police are calling suspicious circumstances.
Nefertiti Nicole Williams, 20, was one of the two. She was the news editor of the FAMUAN at Florida A&M University. Everyone we talked to about Williams expressed shock that she would even have an enemy, which, frankly, is typical of the students I?ve encountered through FAMU?s journalism program. At least a couple students intern with us each semester.
I met her briefly on a couple occasions, enough to categorize her as a journalist with potential and to think of her as one of our own.
Also found dead was Shundavian Marquis Brooks, 20. We don?t know much more about him, except that both Brooks and Williams were from Bradenton and they lived with others where their bodies were found on 2829 Roscommon Drive. That is an easy walk from my home, 10 minutes tops.
It?s not so easy to move passed tragic news when you find connections, and in a place like Tallahassee, which rightly prides itself on being a community, we are all connected.
Journalists become hardened to bad news, just as police officers and others who deal with it so often. It is a defense mechanism, a way to handle it tragedy and keep doing your job.
Sadly, I think the rest of society is becoming that way, too.
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