10,000 Mourn Slain UNC Student President

[March 19, 2008]  CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) -- The father of the slain University of North Carolina student body president asked thousands of mourners gathered Tuesday to find solutions to the world's violence, prejudice and inequity.

The shooting death of 22-year-old Eve Carson, which police called a random act of violence, stunned the community this month; her body was found in a street about a mile from campus. Two people with a history of crime have been charged with murdering the popular student leader.

An estimated 10,000 people, including her family from Athens, Ga., attended a tearful memorial service at the campus basketball area Tuesday. Her father, Bob Carson, did not speak but offered a statement challenging his daughter's peers to tackle the greatest needs of the world.

"In the midst of his grief, Mr. Carson finds hope -- hope that Eve's generation will solve some of the most the pressing problems of our time," Dean of Students Melissa Exum said.

Several of Carson's friends, wearing T-shirts that said, "The world is our dance floor" in memory of her love for dancing, spoke about her ability to excite and to mentor. Their description of her ranged from sleep-deprived to motivating.

"Eve was certainly more than a laundry list of superlatives," said Seth Dearmin, a friend and former student body president.

"Let us today shed our last moments of silence for Eve," Dearmin said. "For though she led her life fully, she was not able to lead a full life. From this point forward, we must speak loudly and act boldly. Eve's mantle has been passed to us."

Murder charges have been filed against 17-year-old Laurence Lovette and 21-year-old Demario Atwater, both of Durham. Lovette is also charged with murder in the death of a Duke University graduate student.

Carson was a prestigious Morehead-Cain scholar and a North Carolina Fellow who studied abroad in Cuba and spent summers volunteering in Ecuador, Egypt and Ghana as part of a school program. The premed student majored in political science and biology major.

Carson was also the student body president of Clarke Central High School in Athens and graduated as a valedictorian there.

[Associated Press; By MIKE BAKER]

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