anderson ssuspect arrested

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SoCalHoops College News

CSUF: Rodney Anderson Shooting
Suspect Arrested--(Oct. 9, 2000)

This was reported in the LA Times and over on the Cal State Fullerton Rivals' website this weekend, but we want to pass along the news: A suspect was arrested over the weekend and charged in the March 2 shooting of Rodney Anderson, a Cal State Fullerton freshman basketball player last season.

Anderson was shot three times outside his parents house two days before Cal State Fullerton's final game of the season. He's been paralyzed from the waist down since the shooting, and while he plans to take classes next semester, it is clear that he will not be playing again any time soon. According to the Daily Titan, CSUF's daily paper, Anderson remains in his family's home, recovering from his injuries and is confined to a wheelchair. Anderson, a human services major, is not attending CSUF this semester, but said he plans to attend next semester.

The suspect was identified as Curtis Vaughn Jackson by the investigating officer Saturday. Jackson, 24, was charged this past Thursday with four counts of attempted murder and is being held at Los Angeles County Jail, according to a detective with the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. The suspect, whose last known address was in Hawthorne, had been in custody for three months for a parole violation before the new charges were filed, according to the LA Times' sources, who said he is a "known gang member," had served six years in prison for robbery and is "a candidate for the three-strikes law."

According to police sources who spoke with the LA Times, the area in which Anderson's parents live has a high level of gang activity but they determined that Anderson himself didn't have any gang associations. "It appears from our investigation that the shooting was a random thing," officers told the Times.

Anderson didn't comment on the arrest. But his mother did: "We're all still puzzled by the whole thing," Anderson's mother, Martha told the LA Times. A fund has been established by the Cal State Fullerton University Advancement Foundation to help defray Anderson's medical expenses, and the athletic department plans to donate the proceeds from Fullerton's season-opening game against Simon Fraser Nov. 8 to the fund. Coach Donny Daniels said Anderson and his family will be invited to attend the game.

According to the LA Times' story, Rich Bossenmeyer, a Cal State Fullerton assistant coach last season who is now the coach at Tustin High, has kept up regular contact with Anderson since the shooting, and visited him regularly when he was hospitalized. "No matter what happens with this case in the legal system, it doesn't change Rodney's day-to-day life, and that's the tough part," Bossenmeyer told the Times. "But Rodney has handled it all very well."

Titan head basketball coach, Donny Daniels, told the Daily Titan, the Cal State Fullerton daily newspaper, that he is pleased with the arrest if they have the right person in custody. "I'm happy for the family, happy that this whole ordeal may be coming to an end," Daniels said. "Hopefully this will bring some closure to such a tragic incident that turned the family upside down."