Rajaan Bennett, Vandy Prospect, Killed in Murder-Suicide
By
Rajaan Bennett, a Vanderbilt football prospect, was tragically killed early Thursday in what police are describing as an apparent murder-suicide at Bennett’s mother’s home in Powder Springs.
Police were alerted to danger at the house when they received a 911 call at 2:30 am with someone whispering for help.
Officers arrived about four minutes later, and “as they approached and knocked on the door, they heard several gunshots,” Powders Springs police Major Charles Spann told the AJC.
Immediately after the four or five shots rang out, Narjaketha Bennett, 37, and Taijan Hunter, 32, ran from the house, hysterical, police said.
Two “juveniles” exited the house shortly after that and when police were able to enter the house, they found two people dead: the young Bennett and the 39-year-old Clifton O’Neal Steager, an ex-boyfriend of Bennett’s mother.
Bennett was the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Class AAAAA player of the year and was described by his high school coach as “just one of the best ever” (regarding his character). Needless to say, this is an awful, awful awful situation, and our thoughts and prayers go out to the Bennett family.
Much like the inexplicable death of prospect Billey Joe Johnson, Bennett’s passing makes everyone wonder, “Why?” clearly it seems like the case of an angry (and likely/possibly drunk) ex-boyfriend of his mother, but it’s just all the more frustrating/disheartening/etc when you hear things like what was recently said by his coach to Vandy officials:
I’m sure you want to talk about Rajaan on the football field, but I promise he’s a better person than he is player. He has a great head on his shoulders, a guy that has been the man in his household for quite a while, yet still worked to maintain a solid GPA in class and become such a great player.
In other words, we aren’t talking about a young man who skated by with bad grades and utilizing his name value/status as a prospect — we’re talking about a legitimately bright young man (who also passed up scholarship offers at bigger schools to attend Vanderbilt) who’s only “crime” was not getting out of the house fast enough.
Rajaan Bennett, Vandy Prospect, Killed in Murder-Suicide
