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Accused Triggerman in Custody in Killing of Southern U. Athlete

By Nikki Bannister
Black College Wire

Baton Rouge City Police Department Marcus Thomas

The 27-year-old accused triggerman in the shooting death of Southern University football player James Allen is in custody after turning himself in to the Baton Rouge city police department.

Marcus Thomas is being held in the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on charges of second-degree murder and illegally carrying a weapon in the Jan. 24 shooting death of the sophomore offensive lineman.

Thomas surrendered on Feb. 19, a week after authorities named him in a warrant as the suspect.

Allen was shot in the head outside The Varsity, a nightclub outside the north gates of Louisiana State University, after participating in an altercation.

Police said that while Allen was involved in the fight, Thomas shot him in the head and fled the scene.

The pain of losing a fellow Jaguar still rips through the campus.

"It still scares me a little," said Edith Wright, a mass communications major from Tuskegee, Ala. "I still feel pain for his family, his friends and the university."

Nikki Bannister is a student at Southern University who writes for The Southern Digest.