Three Wilmington men, armed with guns, traveled to Lincoln University last fall, intent on robbing students of their jewelry and other valuables during the school’s crowded homecoming celebration, Chester County prosecutors said Tuesday.
In the process, they killed one of their criminal rivals, Ju’Juan Jeffers, and sparked a bout of gunfire that left six other people injured, including one of the suspects.
William Sells, 20, and Makaveli Valera, 19, and Karon Rollins, 17, have all been charged with second-degree murder, conspiracy and related crimes, according to Chester County District Attorney Chris de Barrena-Sarobe.
The three men, who have no affiliation with the university, bragged about the thefts and shooting afterward on Instagram, de Barrena-Sarobe said.
“This university is really a fabric of our community and last fall, while students, alumni, faculty, friends, gathered for homecoming celebrations at that university, a group of people from Wilmington decided they were going to crash the party,” he said. “In the process, not only did they kill people and hurt people, but they destroyed a sense of security at an important part of Chester County.”
De Barrena-Sarobe said information the men posted on Instagram after the shooting helped identify them. Sells, he noted, was wounded during the shooting and provided false information to investigators almost immediately.
They remained in custody Tuesday in Delaware, awaiting extradition to Chester County.
A fourth man, Zecqueous Morgan-Thompson, 21, has been charged with aggravated assault for firing his mother’s handgun during a party Oct. 25 at the historically-Black university’s Homecoming festivities.
Morgan-Thompson had previously been charged with carrying the .380 handgun without a permit, but had new charges filed after investigators said they were able to match shell casings found at the scene to the handgun he was carrying.
Gunfire rang out about 9:30 p.m. as a large party was being held outside of the campus’ International Cultural Center building, sending thousands of students into a panic.
Days later, prosecutors announced the arrest of Zecqueous Morgan-Thompson, 21, of Wilmington, initially charging him with carrying a concealed firearm without a license. Morgan-Thompson has no affiliation with Lincoln, but drove to the school while carrying his mother’s .380 handgun, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.
Later, prosecutors determined Morgan-Thompson fired six shots from the gun.
Seven people were injured in the gunfire, including Jeffers,20, who was shot in the head. Jeffers was not a student at Lincoln, but attended homecoming at the invitation of a student there, according to a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by his family.
In that lawsuit, attorneys for Jeffers’ mother, Marchelle Hargroves, asserted that administrators at the university “allowed unrestricted public access to its homecoming events and negligently failed to implement or enforce adequate security measures,” creating a culture that permitted violence.
The crowd was so dense, medical personnel were unable to treat Jeffers for several hours because the roads surrounding the school were gridlocked, according to the lawsuit. They had to resort to using all-terrain vehicles to reach Jeffers and other shooting victims, as ambulances were unable to navigate through the crowd.
In the wake of the shooting, and amid mounting pressures from local politicians, Lincoln’s administrators announced new safety plans for large events, including holding no outdoor events after dusk, screening guests, and allowing only one registered guest per student for the Spring Fling event held last month.
Lower Oxford Township supervisors said they have been fielding complaints about Lincoln for years, with residents complaining of persistent issues with parking, litter and late-night noise disturbances.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.