Police recover stolen items found in Mississippi

Troy University police officers will be traveling to Mississippi on Friday with warrants for the arrests of three men accused of burglary on Troy’s main campus.

During Trojan Day on Saturday, Sept. 23, three men visiting campus as football recruits from East Mississippi Community College allegedly stole electronic devices from a dorm room in Clements Hall, according to Troy University Police Detective James Taylor.

Aarron Boatright of Manning, South Carolina; Lorenzo Dantzler of Starkville, Mississippi; and Quen­darius Jackson of Hueytown, all East Mississippi Community College students, are the suspects identified in the burglary.

Taylor said that the department identified the men by looking at videotape evidence in the residence hall and working with Troy’s athletic department to check its databases.

“We checked the roll of students with photographs, names and things of that nature,” Taylor said. “We found out that they were here visiting from Mississippi doing recruiting through the help of the athletic department and the recruiting register.”

Dantzler and Boatright were both listed on the current East Mississippi Community College football roster, according to the school’s athletic site, at the time this article was published.

The Troy student whose items were stolen, who asked to remain anonymous, said that his PlayStation 4 gaming system, several controllers and a video game, power cords and a backpack were taken from his bedroom during the football game against Akron.

The student said he forgot to check whether the door was properly locked after having friends over.

He first reported the missing items around 1 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 24, and filed a police report with the university police with descriptions of the items around 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Troy university police called the student on Wednesday, Sept. 27, to inform him his items had been located in Mississippi.

The student said his items were available to be picked up on Tuesday, Oct. 3, about a week and a half after he reported them missing.

“I had most of my items back, but some are still missing,” the student said. “My PlayStation memory was wiped clean, and one of my controllers was damaged, but other than that, everything was fine.

“I’m very thankful that it wasn’t worse.”

Taylor said that monetary restitution will probably be sought, depending on the outcome of the case.

According to the Kemper County, Mississippi, arrest report, Jackson was arrested on Tuesday, Sept. 26, and charged with possession of marijuana and possession of a firearm on campus.

Jackson did not have possession of the weapon on Troy’s campus, according to Taylor. However, he said the firearm was stolen from someone in the city of Troy and Jackson was found with the weapon in Mississippi.

Jackson will face charges in both Mississippi and Alabama, while Boatright and Dantzler will only face charges only in Alabama.

The university police have been in contact with Mississippi departments and will seek extradition — bringing the parties involved back to the state where the crime was committed — so that the three men will be prosecuted in Alabama.

Taylor said students and visitors need to be aware of their surroundings to ensure better campus safety.

“We need to make sure that students know that if someone is waiting around an entrance door and it doesn’t seem that they have keys or fobs to get in, they should notify the police immediately,” Taylor said. “That’s how we solve cases, through the public’s eye and how much they notice and pay attention to.”