The mother of a Citadel cadet who was killed with his closest friend is remembering her son as “such a light,” as a former detective suggested the victims’ cellphones could be key to uncovering what led to the deadly attack.
According to the DeLand Police Department in Florida, 19-year-old Dustin Rose and 18-year-old Samson Campbell were discovered dead at about 10:40 p.m. on July 29.
Police said Tuesday that investigators had secured an arrest warrant for a 17-year-old male suspect, who was taken into custody the following day by the U.S. Marshals Service.
At a news conference Wednesday, officials said the suspect and the two victims “knew each other in some capacity.” Authorities also noted that the arrested teen has what they described as a “pretty good criminal history.”
Dustin Rose, 19, a Citadel cadet, had been working toward a lifelong goal of military service when he was killed. (GoFundMe)
Rose was a student at The Citadel Military College of South Carolina and had been back home during a break when the fatal incident occurred. In a message to the campus community shared with News Outlet, Citadel President Gen. Frank McKenzie called Rose a “team leader” and described him as a respected friend and classmate.
A spokeswoman also confirmed to News Outlet that Rose served as a member of the South Carolina National Guard.
Rachel Rose, Dustin’s mother, said her son brought warmth and joy to those closest to him, calling him “such a light in our family.”
“When they took him they took the very best part of me. We are devastated,” she told News Outlet.
Childhood friends Dustin Rose, left, and Samson Campbell, right, were fatally shot in a vacant Florida lot as police search for a suspect. (DeLand Police Department)
Patrick McGeehan, a criminal defense attorney and former homicide detective, told News Outlet since their phones weren’t stolen, investigators could use them as they try to piece together a potential motive.
“And they still have the phone, the one kid still had the phone, which leads me to believe that’s not a robbery. It may be something else, because who’s going to leave a thousand dollar smart phone if they’re doing robbery? That’s something else that jumped out at me,” McGeehan said. “They will go through their phones. They will do a forensic audit of their phones, that is something that agencies in the area are capable of doing.”
“The information they can gather from the phone is fairly extensive,” he added.
Police released a screenshot of surveillance video showing the two walking together on Tuesday evening. It’s not yet known if the two were targeted.
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.
Surveillance video shows Dustin Rose and Samson Campbell walking together on Tuesday evening, the day before they were found dead. (DeLand Police Department)
“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.
Rose’s aunt, Jaimie Scarola, told FOX 35 his life was taken too soon.
“He was willing to go to the front line and fight for our freedom, including the freedom of the one who took him from us,” Scarola said. “You took him away from not only his family, but you robbed an entire country of a future soldier who didn’t get to answer that call.”
