LITTLE ROCK — Off-duty police officers are providing round-theclock security at a Little Rock apartment complex for graduate students after residents say someone fired a gun outside the building last weekend.
Since the shooting, the apartment’s management has asked former William H. Bowen School of Law student Courtney Van Buren - a former player in the National Football League - to move out.
A law student heard two gunshots outside Barrister Court Apartments at about 10 p.m. on April 10, according to a Little Rock Police Department incident report.
Barrister Court is an 84-unit apartment complex built in 2006 next to MacArthur Park and the law school. Although privately owned, its tenants must be enrolled in the law school, the nearby UA Clinton School of Public Service or studying to take the Arkansas Bar examination.
It’s the closest thing the two schools have to a dormitory.
Mircha King, the apartment manager, told police a student looked out of the building and saw Van Buren in the area where the shots came from, according to the report.
The student didn’t report seeing Van Buren holding a weapon, however.
Gabrielle White, who lives on 10th Street next to Barrister Court, said she heard gunshots on April 10, too.
White said she heard four shots, fired by “something heavy.” She didn’t see who fired them.
Little Rock police spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings said the department isn’t investigating the complaint. King’s report didn’t come until Monday, two days after the shots were purportedly fired, Hastings said.
Wendell Griffen, Van Buren’s attorney, said his client didn’t fire a weapon outsidethe apartment complex.
“Courtney Van Buren has more important things to do than to create trouble for himself or anybody else by some foolishness such as is alleged,” Griffen said. “He’s as threatened by shots being fired as anybody else.”
Van Buren did not return a message left on his cellular telephone.
After the shooting, the apartment complex asked a student to move out on a voluntary basis, said Keith Johnson, the building’s owner. Johnson wouldn’t name the student.
Johnson said the student had also been suspected of breaking light fixtures in the building the night before. In addition, the student was no longer enrolled in the law school, as is required by the student’s lease.
When the student wouldn’t leave immediately, Johnson hired off-duty police officers to provide security at the complex 24 hours a day.
Johnson said the student has received a notice that requires vacating the premises by Monday.
If the student isn’t out by then, Johnson said he’ll begin the eviction process and possibly seek a restraining orderto keep the student away from the building.
There was no need to give Van Buren a formal notice to vacate, Griffen said. Griffen said he already told the apartment’s management that Van Buren would move out after he returns from out of town.
Johnson, who is paying for the security presence at Barrister, said it would remain in place “until we feel secure.”
“Our relationship with the schools is very important and so is our concern for our students,” Johnson said. “So whatever it takes, we’re doing.”
King, the apartment manager, declined to comment.
Clinton School Dean Skip Rutherford said he and law school Dean John DiPippa met with King on Tuesday.
King was “scared” and “worried about the safety of others in the building,” Rutherford said.
By Wednesday, the security was in place.
Student safety is the top priority of all university administrators, Rutherford said, particularly since the shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007.
“My thought was then, and still is now, to be as prepared as possible,” Rutherford said. “I’d rather overreact than underreact when it comes to security issues.”
DiPippa said in an e-mail that he thought Johnson had taken “appropriate steps to make the residents feel safe and secure.”
Griffen said Van Buren had already decided to move out before the shooting.
He is relocating to Louisiana, Griffen said, and was in Baton Rouge on Friday working to enroll in a graduate program at Southern University.
Van Buren is a former offensive lineman who spentfive years playing in the NFL. He was drafted by the San Diego Chargers in 2003 out of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
He played for the Chargers for four years, played for the Detroit Lions for one year and then retired.
After his football career ended, Van Buren spent a year working in Washington, D.C., as a staff member for U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, DArk.
Van Buren enrolled in the law school in 2008 and was originally scheduled to graduate next year. For a time, he was president of the Sports and Entertainment Law Society.
Griffen said Van Buren “takes his reputation very seriously.”
“This doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes kind of detective ability to figure out that some slanderous allegations have been thrown against my client,” he said. “On his behalf, I intend to find every person responsible for those slanderous allegations. Let’s see how this looks behind that kind of litigation.”
Arkansas, Pages 18 on 04/18/2010