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nothingbutjsu
September 20th, 2006, 08:35 PM
This is a depressing story...


TSU's Bell charged in attempted murders

By MIKE ORGAN
Staff Writer


Tennessee State freshman offensive lineman Jamel Bell was taken into custody Tuesday morning by Metro Police detectives and law-enforcement agents from Florida on several charges, including two counts of attempted murder.

An arrest warrant in Osceola County, Fla., charges the Lakeland, Fla., native with armed robbery with a firearm, two counts of attempted murder, armed carjacking, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, two counts of grand theft with a firearm, and grand theft, Metro Police spokesman Don Aaron said.

Bell, 18, also faces Metro Police charges of being a fugitive of justice, Aaron said.

Bell has played in each of TSU's three games this season.

The alleged crime, according to the warrant, occurred June 25. TSU's players reported to campus Aug. 5.

Bell was in class at the time he was arrested Tuesday and was taken into custody without resisting. TSU's campus police located Bell and brought him to the law-enforcement agents who had shown up at the school. Detectives from Osceola and Polk counties in Florida joined Metro detectives, who took Bell into custody.

He is being held without bond in the Metro Jail pending extradition proceedings to Florida, Aaron said.

Bell is scheduled to appear on the Metro docket for an extradition hearing at 9 a.m. Monday.

According to a release from the Osceola County Sheriff's Office, which is conducting the investigation, deputies responded June 25 to a report of an armed robbery at Narcoossee Community School.

A 911 call had come from a passer-by, who said a man and woman flagged him down and said they had been robbed and shot.

The 33-year-old man had been shot in the back and leg, and the 23-year-old woman was shot in the leg.

Names of the victims were not released.

They were treated at Orlando Regional Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.

The man said that four people shot the couple and drove away in his 2002 van and their own vehicle, a Crown Victoria with dark-tinted windows and chrome wheels.

Osceola detectives have been searching for the four alleged attackers, according to the release.

TSU Athletics Director Teresa L. Phillips declined to comment. Coach James Webster also declined comment through associate athletic director of media relations Wallace Dooley.

Aaron said Bell does not yet have a lawyer.

Bell, 6-foot-4, 340 pounds, was elevated on the depth chart after TSU junior offensive lineman Eugene Banks was sidelined by an ankle injury in the preseason. n