Police make arrest in killing of Ex-Deep Creek football player

Donte was one of the first people I met when I moved to this state from New York almost 18 years ago. We attended Rosemont Elem. and shared Ms. Black as our second grade teacher. He was one of the first people to embrace me in my class because as one student told me "New Yorkers have too much attitude." Donte did not let that stop him from making a new friend. Donte was always willing to help you if needed, caring, and loving, I just don't understand why someone would do this to anyone like him. Although I have not seen Donte since 2000 when he left our loosing Stallions and made a great career for himself, I breifly communicated on Myspace with him sometime about 1 yr and 1/2 ago and was elated to find out he was a father of twins and enjoyed it very much. That was Donte, he counted every blessing as it came and not for one moment acted as if it was owed to him. My prayers go out to Donte's family and all friends.

Danielle C.

God bless ya'll in your time of sorrow! You are handling the situation with a lot of dignity and pride!

Donte was my brother and I must say that he was a good person who didn't deserve to have his life taken under any circumstances. He was not at fault at all for the decisions he made that night. If it didn't happen in the middle of the night, and it happened in the afternoon is neither here or there. This thug who took my brothers life didn't have any reason whatsoever to hate him to the extent of taking his life. I'm angry at the comments because my little brother was anything but a thug and the people blaming him obviously knew nothing about him. He was a kind, caring and compassionate person and father. His death has changed our lives forever and I'm not sure that a particular time could've changed what occurred. Please have sympathy for my family and believe that God doesn't make mistakes! We miss and love you him deeply.

What a waste of a life. This happens so often that is doesn't raise eyebrows. Maybe that's part of the problem. Violence has become an accepted fact of life in Tidewater, N.C. etc...

Stay away from clubs where thugs and losers hang out. Surround yourself with good people. Because these days, you can't get into a minor disagreement with someone without risking getting jumped by a gang of punks or having a gun pointed at your head. Mixing alchohol into the situation is just like throwing gasoline on a fire. Something extremely stupid is guaranteed to happen.

Some places just attract trash. Just like bugs to a light. This young guy didn't deserve to die outside a nightclub. What a shame.

"Unless you have a real reason to be on the streets after 11PM, you should be at home regardless of your age. The hoods rule the streets after dark."

Hiding in your house does not take back the streets. Retreating to our homes does little to nothing to solving the violence we read about every day. I'm not saying be foolish, but we can't live like hermits and we should not be forced to. Stricter laws, holding parent(s)/guardians accoutable for their juvenile criminal kids is an option our laws don't allow. That too is part of the problem. It's just a darn shame we constantly have to read stories about people like Donte and Lonnie and every other violent crime while we sit back hiding. I still want to know where these thugs get their guns from. Were they legal or illegal?

I thought this was about a young man who was killed and not about how late they should be out at night. I didn't know this young man personally but I knew him as player in high school polite well mannered and driven. Please I hope your kids never ever get into a circumstance of being at the wrong place at the wrong time whether or not it is 12 noon or 12 midnight they have a right to enjoy life to it's fulliest. Maybe you don't carry a weapon but your WORDS are really deadly spewing bigotry.Don't need to call you out you know what you posted. No you didn't say it out right but you came in through the backdoor with it.I send my prayers out to his family.

Posting because this young man's parents may have been disgraced to read your comment and the way you worded it was just horrible and i also agree that there are more then just a FEW african americans doing something with their life but noone sees that but if they go out past curfew and hang out with friends and get caught up in a mishap then everyone and their mother wants to talk about it. But if a group of troubled teens get into an accredited college and do well then not as many people are going to talk about that. I just pray for both families and I do not think that it was their fault that they were out past this "mysterious 11:00" that keeps coming up in everything. I just think they were trying to go out and have fun like most kids and adults do and got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Once again I send my sorrows to both families who had children going somewhere with their life and someone decid

You could get killed anytime of the day anywhere, just ask the parents of the Virginia Tech shooting. I was robbed at gunpoint at 8 pm in front of my house and the guys gun could've easily gone off and shot me in the head! One of the things that needs to be done is go after the habitual offenders and hold our probation officers more accountable of the people in their charge instead of giving them a free pass! We already have mandatory minimums and no early release, prison is like a school for criminals and gangs. Maybe showing a real life execution and making our youth watch it would deter many would be killers!

George buddy, you can try to sell more gun control laws until you're blue in the face, but the fact is, the element that needs to be controlled is the people using them to commit these crimes. Stiffer punishments, a longer arm of justice? You know that old saying; if you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

I'm still all for an isolated penal colony like Australia was before it became more civlized. These criminals should have to fight every day for their lives. Survival of the fittest - just like in the real animal kingdom.

I just can't see where 11 PM is the bewitching hour for violence. I mean really, do we just all start staying at home instead of going to a concert, or whatever you enjoy that may last later than 11? I don't thank that's the answer. I'd be more interested in seeing a more harsh punishment for any crime, violent or not, and I think that's were the problem is. Our judicial system doesn't work well, and I think it's up to us to start asking the hard questions, and making a point of saying we have had enough.... Keep our street safer! I know so many got so excited about the Supreme Court and it's ruleing about guns to protect the home in D.C., but if we are going to ever get violence under control there needs to be more gun contol then what VA currently has. I'm not trying to change the subject, but all this plays an important role in our day to day lives. And before anyone jumps me, you can be a victim of a violent crime

I did not intend to start a war of words by suggesting that he was not a model for others. What I will say is that anyone that thinks you can safely go to a night club, bar, street corner or even a walk after 11 PM has no sense of how many hoods their are in this area and are foolish beyond belief. This is when the criminal element really crawls out from the underbelly of society, doing their dirty deeds under the cover of darkness. Unless you have a real reason to be on the streets after 11PM, you should be at home regardless of your age. The hoods rule the streets after dark. The police have their hands tied because of individual rights, and are relegated to a reporting agency. How do we fix the problem? Part of it is keeping your children at home and teaching them respect and responsibility, not allowing them to run the streets to be brought up by their peers on the corners.

These days one can be attacked and killed inside or outside of the home and at any time of day. To these criminals, it just doesn't matter anymore. They've figured out that some bleeding heart will take their side and depict them as some poor inner-city, underprivileged kid who was bucked by the system somehow or other...

If they're out for something, they'll stop at nothing to get it.

I am the first to admit that I got Lonnie and Donte mixed up.

They were both out at 2-3 AM, but somehow it seems like a 25-yr-old who has either finished college or else gotten started in a career another way can pretty much stay out with friends when he chooses. Lonnie, living at home with his aunt, I would have held a bit more accountable to be home (but, like I said, with exceptions because kids all go out after graduation and other times over the summer with the friends they are leaving behind when they go off to college).

In either case, blaming the victim is wrong. I was just thinking about minimizing the chances of getting attacked, knowing lots of attacks take place late at night. Cheers, MGM

While your sentiment is well meaning, Mr. Get A Life, I must correct you on your back handed compliment. There are plenty of African Americans trying to do good things with their lives, but sometimes other people's vision and scope are too narrow to see it; some people find it easier to put others in a box, that way their own view of the world is kept intact. You would do well to understand that a skewed take on a group of people doesn't mean that's who they are. It's really sad to see this latent racism coming forth, when the bottom line is this boy is
victim, and someone loved him.

I second your post! I also agree with GETALIFE's post, but would say that I know more than a few African-Americans trying to make something of themselves and more than a few that have in deed made something of themselves. It's just sad that their accomplishments are being overshadowed by their unbalanced peers.

BRAVO!

To know that the main thing that most people are worried about in this article is that a 25 YEAR OLD GROWN MAN was out past 11:00pm and freak accidents happen and he probably was a african american kid trying to go somewhere with his life just like Lonnie but was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It truly makes me sick because noone sees that this is one of FEW african americans doing something with their life, all they see is that he was out past 11:00PM saying stuff like "this isn't a kid that i would want my child to model after". That is the most ridiculus statement I have ever heard in my life cause I would want my child to model after someone going somewhere with their life. The ones speaking like that are the same ones that have kids running in the streets selling drugs and other mess and I just find it to be ridiculus that he died and all you can say is "Oh well he shouldn't have been out that late" is basi

based off previous comments from this story and another story from earlier this week, im assuming you MUST be one of the devil's kids and deserve to die if you're out enjoying yourself past 11:00pm...that's what some of you guys are basically saying...

***NEWS FLASH***

its the SUMMER TIME...people like to have fun and spend time with their friends...it doesnt always fall within the daylight hours, especially if you have a job or are taking college classes...its a shame that people cant even go out and have a good time anymore without getting gunned down in cold-blood or criticized/judged by the hermit crabs that leave negative/ignorant comments on the Pilot's articles...

What do you think that can happen after 11:00 p.m. that cannot happen before 11:00 p.m.? While I certainly agree that curfews for minors make sense for a variety of reasons, adults should be able to stay out late with safety.

I used to go out dancing with friends when I was a young adult...often having breakfast in the wee hours before we went home. We did nothing wrong and got into no trouble. As middle aged adults, my husband and I often like to catch a late movie and linger over a glass of wine...and sometimes we still (shock! horror!) go dancing.

Let's not make the mistake of blaming the victim. The person to blame is he who fired the gun.

I tell my two daughters (24 & 28 years) that if you are out after 11:00 PM, and that if you are under 30, the likelyhood of getting robbed, jacked, shot, colliding with a driver under the influence of something, the chances of something bad happening is exponitially higher. If you are black, the odds are even greater.

Donte was a 25 year old man. Maybe the thugs that killed him were kids, but Donte certainly was not. He had evry right to be out all night if he wanted to. It's just sad that we are looking at another senseless death.

I would put one exception on the "stay in the house after 11" scenario. We are talking a young adult/recent high school graduate here. Even our Christian school grads went out to the beach till the wee hours the night of graduation, as a class. I think the occasional festive night out with friends before college starts is perfectly appropriate. These are young adults, after all. But, you're right, if you go out clubbing every night, you increase your chances of eventually running into a thug. One of my friends has a daughter who watched her fiance be gunned down in a random act of violence on a Jacksonville beach late one night. He was a Marine, as I recall, but no match for that gun. Cheers, MGM

Donte was 25 years old. Sometimes it helps to read the article.

Don't be so hasty to judge, stevenm. Your "good kid?" insinuates that he could be less than, and you then that you wouldn't want your children modeling their behavior after his. Who knows what he was doing outside of a nightclub at 3am, but not everyone is always doing something wrong. I was a "good kid," and I put myself through college and then medical school working 7 nights a week as a bartender in a nightclub.

I would not want my child to model his behavior. No child or young adult needs to be out after 11PM. Everyone knows or should know that nothing good goes on after that hour, maybe even a little earlier would be better! Just because it is legal for someone to be out at that hour doesn't mean that you have to put yourself out there. My condolences to his family and I hope they stick a needle into the young mans arm that killed him, but if you want to keep your young ones safe, keep them off the streets late at night! Hoods rule the night and half of the day, don't give them a chance to victimize you and your loved ones.

First off, it is sad anytime a person loses their life to senseless violence. But, to those who are asking "why are so many people getting shot lately?" -- this happens every minute in our country. This is nothing new, some people just turn a blind eye to it because it doesnt affect them. We all need to wake up and realize that our country is going down the crapper.

it's almost every day there is another killing.

What is going on with all these killings?