SLAIN STUDENTS LIKELY HEARD ANTI-DRUG EFFORT

SALISBURY - Two Catawba College students who died in what police call a
drug-related shooting almost certainly received extensive education from
the school aimed at keeping them from abusing drugs or alcohol.

"We try to be on top of it," said Ken Clapp, the school's senior vice
president and dean of student affairs. "We work very hard, but it still
happens."

On Friday, Salisbury police said they were still searching for two suspects
in the Thursday morning shooting deaths of freshmen Matthew Glenn Greear
and Walter Franklin Long, both 19-year-old football players. Police
assigned 10 officers to find the killers.

"Our whole investigative unit is working on it," said Deputy Police Chief
Mark Wilhelm. "Everyone is in the field."

The day after the students died in a shooting at the off-campus Lakewood
Apartments, Clapp said in an interview that the school's message about
substance abuse begins before students arrive at the private liberal arts
school, which is affiliated with the United Church of Christ.

"There's a precollege retreat, and a considerable part of it is about
lifestyle and substances that can be abused," Clapp said.

The educational program continues during the first days of school, involves
the students' advisers and also includes efforts by dormitory resident
assistants, he said.

The athletic department sponsors drug seminars that are mandatory for
athletes, he said. The school also has experimented with innovative ways to
get its message across. It offered an interactive Web site last year but
dismantled it when traffic didn't materialize.

It is too early to say how Thursday's shootings will affect the substance
abuse effort, he said.

Police called the shootings drug-related based on marijuana found at the
apartment and witness statements, Wilhelm said.

"At this point it is drug-related," said Salisbury police Detective Rita
Rule. "We've got some names we're working on, and we plan to interview some
more people."

Two other Catawba freshmen were injured in the incident as they jumped
through a window onto a landing to avoid being shot. Christopher Lee Isaac
of Salisbury and Andrew Johnson Womble of Lillington, both 19, were treated
for cuts to their arms and released from Rowan Regional Medical Center.

A criminal records check showed that Isaac was convicted in Catawba County
last July of misdemeanor possession of a small amount of marijuana.

The suspects in Thursday's shooting are black men who weigh about 180
pounds. One is 6 feet tall; the other 6 feet 2 inches. They were both
dressed in hooded black sweatsuits.

Police ask anyone with information about the case to call them at (704)
638-5333.

The shootings took place at a relatively new apartment complex on
Salisbury's west side, about three miles from the campus. "We've never had
any reports of drug problems there before," Wilhelm said. "It's always been
very quiet -- no trouble."

One resident of the Lakewood Apartments, Jose Arqueta, said he had seen
Greear and Long before and there had been no trouble before Thursday. "They
were always very nice," he said. "They said hello and waved. Nothing
strange ever happened here."

The deaths were the third and fourth in six months for Catawba College.
Football player Darris Morris, 21, was killed in January after students
from Catawba and Livingstone College got into a fight at a party; six
Livingstone students have been charged with his murder. Police say there is
no connection between that shooting and Thursday's incident.

Last October, sophomore Andrew Grooms died from burns he suffered while
trying to escape a dormitory fire.