A 17-year-old accused in the fatal shooting of a Citadel cadet and his longtime best friend had been in and out of the juvenile justice system for years, officials said, with authorities arguing that repeated prior cases failed to keep him off the streets before the alleged double homicide.
DeLand police in Florida said 19-year-old Dustin Rose and 18-year-old Samson Campbell were discovered dead around 10:40 p.m. on July 29. On Tuesday, investigators announced they had secured an arrest warrant for a 17-year-old boy, who was taken into custody the following day by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, officials said the suspect and the two victims “knew each other in some capacity.” Authorities also described the teenager as someone with what they called a “pretty good criminal history.”
Childhood friends Dustin Rose, left, and Samson Campbell, right, were fatally shot in a vacant lot in Florida, according to DeLand police. (DeLand Police Department)
Rose was a student at The Citadel Military College of South Carolina and had returned home during a break when he was killed. In a message to the campus community shared with News Outlet, Citadel President Gen. Frank McKenzie remembered Rose as a “team leader” and a respected friend and classmate.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said the 17-year-old suspect, whom News Outlet is not identifying because he has not been charged as an adult, has an extensive record that includes allegations involving assault with a deadly weapon, several battery counts and drug possession.
“We’re talking about aggravated battery and assault with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed weapon, multiple counts of battery, criminal mischief, vehicle theft, trespassing, drug possession, another aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, resisting an officer, all dating back to 2021,” Chitwood said. He added that those cases were “either dropped, non-filed, dismissed, or at best, resolved with probation.”
Surveillance footage shows Dustin Rose and Samson Campbell walking together on Tuesday evening, one day before they were found dead. (DeLand Police Department)
Chitwood alleged that the teen’s ability to face little punishment is due to a lack of prosecution by the State Attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit of Florida, Monique Worrell. He said that before the alleged double murder, the teen was in a diversion program for drug possession and disturbing a school function.
“It makes you wonder if our justice system held [the teen] accountable from the start, maybe things would have turned out different,” the sheriff said.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier also criticized Worrell, saying her “neglect of duty and incompetence are a danger to the 9th Judicial Circuit.”
“Soft on crime policies do not work!” Uthmeier said.
Worrell said in a statement, “It is disappointing, but not surprising, that the appointed Attorney General continues to make politically motivated statements without knowing all the facts. Public safety deserves thoughtful leadership and not rhetoric designed to score political points.”
“The most recent case referenced by Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood that involves this juvenile did not occur within the Ninth Judicial Circuit, but rather his own Seventh Circuit and is therefore outside the jurisdiction of this office to speak to,” Worrell said.
The teen faces two counts of second-degree murder in relation to the shooting, but R.J. Larizza, state attorney of the Seventh Judicial Circuit, said during a news conference he would likely be charged as an adult. The teen suspect’s father was also arrested on charges of felony accessory after the fact.
Rose was also a member of the South Carolina National Guard, a spokeswoman confirmed with News Outlet.
Rachel Rose, Dustin’s mother, said he was “such a light in our family.”
Dustin Rose, 19, a Citadel cadet, was pursuing his childhood dream of serving in the military when he was killed. (GoFundMe)
“When they took him they took the very best part of me. We are devastated,” she told News Outlet.
One of the victims’ mothers may have been among the family members who found the two dead after they went unreachable by phone, police previously said.
Campbell, a DeLand native, had been staying with his aunt, Karen Chobin, in the Chicago area. Chobin said he was in town to grieve the recent death of the family’s 8-year-old dog and was staying with Rose’s grandparents.
Rose was in DeLand to help Campbell spread his dog’s ashes, Chobin said.
“It was a traumatic loss. It wasn’t a passing of old age. It was awful. And then for this to be what he’s welcomed with when he goes down there to mourn his loss is devastating,” Chobin said.
