6
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2008
Mother says Torairis car followed
BY MCKAY GLASGOW
STAFF WRITER
DeAnne Jackson walked slowly
up to the door of her one-story house
Tuesday evening.
She had been talking to investi
gators all day about the hit-and-run
wreck that killed her son, Chapel
Hill High School senior Rodney
Torain Jr.
She walked into her home, sat
down at her kitchen table and
recounted the last conversations she
had Sunday with her son, the second
Chapel Hill High football player to
die this year.
The other was Torain’s best
friend, Atlas Fraley, who died in
August after complaining of head
aches and body cramps following a
football scrimmage.
“They were brothers and no one
could tell them different,” Jackson
said. “I know he is with Atlas now.
They are together again.”
Jackson said Torain, 17, was
at The Streets at Southpoint on
Saturday night hanging out with
his friends, Ashley Bynum and
LaTesha Farrington.
He called and told her he was
leaving to go to a friend’s house
and that he would return home
late, she said.
“Whenever he was going some
where he was good about calling
and telling me where he was head
ed. I always knew where he was,”
she said.
But Jackson wasn’t expecting the
call she received around 3:50 a.m.
“Rodney said he was on his way
home but that someone was fol
lowing him,” she said. “He said he
was going to try to do something
to lose them.”
Jackson said she didn’t know why
someone would follow her son.
Torain didn’t want the two girls
to take him to his house because
the follower would know where
he lived and the girls would be left
alone, Jackson said.
She said Torain told her that
they were driving on Melville Road
an wit) ijeur Jrien^s!
Hp Afeartu SancWclies!
©elicieus “Soups!
1
'fresMu 'Tossed Salads!
■ ©rinWs!
Sagcls + (Pastries!
Saverij SreaW^asi -
SancWdies!
213 W. Franklin Street
Just in front of Granville Towers
Phone - 929-9189
Fax - 929-9186
Mon-Sat 6:3oam-9pm
Sunday 7:3oam-9pm
| iSave 51.00 ; “Save. 51.00 I
on ami
I greaWfast - i! £S, ZSZ®]
j Sandwich | j YouPicklWo * ;
| Only one coupon per transaction. Valid at Panera Bread } J Only one coupon per transaction. Valid at Panera Bread J
S locations in the Triangle. Valid through December 2,2008. J \ locations in the Triangle. Valid through December 2,2008. {
4 1 |f
ft V
* -
■?\
i X I
H ■ r * i ..
n 4|^
“I got up and I was
frantic. When I got
to the back porch
the state troopers
were walking up!’
DEANNE JACKSON, MOTHER
and then said “goodbye”.
Jackson went to the back porch
thinking she would soon see the
cars’ lights coming down the road.
After a few minutes, she called her
son.
“I called a couple of times and
got no answer. I figured he had
gone back to his friend Antonio's
house to stay the night,” Jackson
said.
A phone call woke Jackson at
about 8 a.m.
She said she was told that
Torain had been found dead at the
scene of a single car wreck on Old
Greensboro Road.
“I got up and I was frantic. When I
got to the back porch the state troop
ers were walking up,” she said.
Sgt. A.W. Waddell of the N.C.
Highway Patrol said he suspects
the silver or gold sedan intention
ally clipped the left side of the
2003 Nissan that Torain was in,
causing it to swerve off the road
and hit a tree.
Torain was in the back seat and
wasn’t wearing a seat belt.
There were likely multiple sus
pects in the car, he said.
The sedan is missing paint on the
front passenger side, he said. Police
are checking auto shops for repairs.
“This is a very hot case right
now,” he said.
Bynum and Farrington both
were released from the hospital
after minor injuries.
Jackson said she can’t under
stand how the perpetrator of the
crime could flee the wreck.
“They were kids and they just
left them there like they were noth-
b | j H w * 'J| m
r Jm fl
•-■yyrr r
COURTESY OF DEANNE JACKSON
Chapel Hill High School football player Rodney Torain Jr., pictured this
fall at school, was killed in a hit-and-run wreck early Sunday morning.
ing,” she said.
Torain was fun to be around and
a protective brother, she said.
Torain’s half-brother Milek
Jackson, 12, said he enjoyed the
times when his older brother
would wrestle with him in the liv
ing room.
“He used to pick me up and
bench press me,” Milek said. “He
just plays around.”
Torain, at 6-foot-l-inch and 270
pounds, was a defensive lineman
and tight end for the Chapel Hill
High football team.
Jackson said it had been a dream
H UNC
-i- THE SONJA HAYNES STONE
CENTER FOR BLACK CULTURE
AND HISTORY
DIASPORA FESTIVAL
OF BLACK AND
INDEPENDENT FILM
Hitchcock Multipurpose Room
Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History
eORDERofMYTHS
This penetrating documentary
film provides insight into k
America’s oldest —but still
segregated—Mardi Gras
celebration in Mobile,
Alabama, where
traditional southern
beliefs provide a
foundation for the fl
racially segregated
celebrations.
™ 3Etefa
2007
City
of his to play college football and
that he had received multiple let
ters, including from Ohio State
University and Appalachian State
University.
Jackson said that he had done
well on his first try at the SAT.
“He was fun-loving and always
walked around the housing sing
ing,” she said.
“He loved to laugh. He loved
people and people loved to be
around him.”
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
New tethering law
difficult to enforce
Limits leashing
to three hours
BY MATTHEW MCGIBNEY
STAFF WRITER
Commissioners in favor of
limiting tethering won a battle
Tuesday when anew restricting
ordinance went on the books, but
enforcement could prove just as
difficult.
For more than a decade, New
Hanover County has completely
outlawed tethering, which is
more restrictive than Tuesday’s
ordinance.
In a 4-1 vote, the Orange
County Board of Commissioners
limited tethering to three hours
a day.
But monitoring the amount of
time owners tether their dogs can
be difficult, said Dr. Jean McNeil,
animal control services manager
for New Hanover County, which
includes Wilmington.
McNeil prefers the complete
prohibition of tethering for that
reason among others.
“If anyone asks me, the best
thing to do is to have no tethering
at all unless the owner is out there,”
she said.
“You don’t worry about a time
limit and monitoring. You end up
with either you outlaw all tethering
or you don’t.”
Tethering refers to leaving an
unsupervised animal restrained
outside.
Some wanted the ordinance to
ban tethering all together, said Bob
Marotto, animal services director
for Orange County. Earlier pro
visions also regulated enclosure
size.
“We as a staff have tried very
hard to balance the community
and reach a compromise in the
ordinance,” he said. “Hopefully it
Scientific Uncertainty
and Climate Policy:
Moving on without all the answers
Thursday, Nov. 20
7:30 p.m.
Carroll Hall
Dr. Henry Pollack is Emeritus Professor of
Geophysics in the Department of Geological
Sciences of the University of Michigan-Ann
Arbor. He is Science Advisor to former Vice
President Al Gore’s Climate Project and,
together with colleagues of the Intergovern
mental Panel on Climate Change, shared the
Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore in 2007.
This talk is third in the series of annual
seminars on climate change hosted by
UNC’s Department of Geological Sciences
and co-sponsored by the Department of
Marine Sciences and the Institute for the
Environment.
Free and open to the public.
For more information, call 919.966.4516
EL
•"■ gaBMBEL
MAKE SOME NOISE!
career jump start, and up to a $20,000 bonus for specific
jobs. All this as a member of the Air Force Resen/e with no
prior military experience needed.
AIR FORCE
RESERVE
AFReserve.com/TalkTolls
(Eljp Satlg ®ar Jieri
will be noted that the final prod
uct does include a number of
compromises.”
For the first year, Orange County
will focus on educating the public.
For next six months, animal con
trol officers will issue notices, and
formal citations will begin after 18
months.
But this could be another
possible area of trouble for the
county.
McNeil said New Hanover found
warnings ineffective.
“We did warning notices to start
with but we ended up with cita
tions,” she said.
“Once we went to citations it was
something that gave immediate
consequences for not complying.
I’d suggest that you do this straight
away.”
Amanda Stipe, a former ani
mal control officer for Carrboro,
acknowledges the possibility for
abuse but doesn’t think that an
ordinance against tetherihg will
stop it.
“I don’t necessarily think that
the tethering law would impact
animal cruelty,” she said.
“I think irresponsible own
ers will tend to be irresponsible
regardless of whether the dog is
inside a pen or the home or outside
on a tethered line.”
Similar ordinances exist in other
places across the state. The closest
is in Durham.
Durham is currently still focus
ing on educating dog owners
instead of issuing warnings.
“I didn’t have to think about
it,” said Becky Heron, a Durham
County commissioner who sup
ported the tethering restrictions.
“I already knew it’s the right
thing to do, just thinking about
these animals tied up outside.”
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
with
Dr. Henry
Pollack
Boost your GPA! We’re talking
about your Graduation Plan of
Attack. Do it with 100% Tuition
Assistance, low-cost healthcare,
a supplemental paycheck, a