Ex-boyfriend charged in North Carolina teen's shooting death
SALISBURY, N.C. --The ex-boyfriend of a North Carolina teen found shot to death in a car Monday night has been charged with murder, reports CBS affiliate WBTV.
Police said 20-year-old Brandon Jerron Hawkins of Salisbury has been arrested in connection with the killing of Talisha Danielle Crowder, 19. Crowder was reported missing by her mother earlier on the same day she was found dead inside a 1991 Honda Accord belonging to Hawkins.
He has been charged with first-degree murder and larceny of a firearm.
Crowder graduated last summer from the Rowan-Cabarrus Community Early College with an associate degree, according to the station. She was a full-time student at Pfeiffer University in Stanly County.
"It's going to be really tough to conceptualize that that life no longer dances on if you would, because it is and was one that was meaningful and still had time to grow, so it's just really tough to think that it's been stifled for any reason or purpose," said Sakinah Riley, an English teacher at Rowan Early College. "Talisha was a great person, very beautiful and cheery. I hope that she's remembered in that way..."
Counselors were being made available to help students process Crowder's death.
According to the FBI statistics, 35.5 percent of female murder victims whose relationship with their killers were known were murdered by husbands or boyfriends in 2014. A report released by the non-profit Violence Policy Center shows that 94 percent of women killed nationally in 2013 knew their offenders and out of that group, 62 percent were killed by husbands or intimate partners.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Salisbury Police Department at 704-638-5333 or Crime Stoppers at 1-866-639-5245.