A Citadel cadet and his childhood friend were found fatally shot in a vacant DeLand, Florida lot, prompting an ongoing manhunt for a suspect. Police identified the victims as 19-year-old Dustin Rose, a cadet at The Citadel Military College of South Carolina and a member of the South Carolina Army National Guard, and 18-year-old Samson Campbell.
The DeLand Police Department stated that officers discovered the two young men on Wednesday around 10:40 p.m. The motive for the shooting has not yet been determined, and no suspect has been publicly identified.
Rose was home from college on a break, pursuing his military aspirations. Campbell, originally from DeLand, was reportedly in town from the Chicago area to mourn the recent death of his family's dog and was staying with Rose's grandparents. According to Campbell's aunt, Rose had accompanied him to Florida to help spread the dog's ashes.
"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," Campbell's aunt, Karen Chobin, told FOX 35.
Rose's aunt, Jaimie Scarola, expressed that his life was taken prematurely. "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.
Surveillance video released by police shows Rose and Campbell walking together on Tuesday evening, the day before they were found dead. It remains unclear if the victims were targeted.
Law enforcement officials, including the Volusia Sheriff’s Office SWAT team and the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force, executed a search warrant at a DeLand home on Saturday night as part of the investigation. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the DeLand Police Department at 386-626-7400.