News Bites From Across South Carolina and The Nation

*First Black High School Valedictorian In 152 Years*

Onovu Otitigbe-Dangerfield, a senior at Albany High School in upstate New York, has made history as the school’s first Black valedictorian since 1868.

“I think that just being able to be valedictorian is an amazing accomplishment,” Onuvu told WNYT. “I’m very privileged to be in that position but to have some historical meaning behind it, to have a position wherein my school there’s a lot of students who look like me, now I’ll have an opportunity to live by that mantra — if you can see it you can be it.”

Aside from having a nearly perfect GPA, she is also very involved in various extra-curricular activities. She is a member of the soccer team, the Select Choir, and the Jazz Improve Band where she plays violin and piano. She is also the President of the robotics team, President of the Key Club, and the Editor-in-Chief of the school’s online newspaper.

When she’s not at school on weekends, she also goes to work at a nursing home. She credits all these activities to providing her a broader perspective in life.

“She is definitely a treasure,” said Ellen Hurley Green, who was Onovu’s guidance counselor in middle school. “I’ve been in the district for 30 years and honestly I can’t say I’ve ever seen someone with so much poise, so much grace, and so much humility, along with so much sparkle in everything she does.”

Moreover, Onuvu has been accepted at several universities including Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and Georgia Tech, among others.

*‘Cowards’: SC Fugitive Arrested In Drive-by Shooting That Killed Midlands 6-Year-Old*

Media fasts give African Ation. Police have arrested a third person in connection with the recent drive-by shooting death of a 6-year-old Midlands boy, the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office said Monday. Michael Lloyd, 20, was taken into custody early Monday morning in Ontario, New York, and will be charged with murder, Orangeburg Sheriff Leroy Ravenell said in a news release. Lloyd’s arrest comes a day after authorities announced charges against two other people allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of Winston Hunter, who died May 13 after the occupants of a vehicle fired into his home in North, a tiny town in Orangeburg County.

“A child was retiring for the night after an evening with family and friends,” Ravenell said in the news release announcing the arrest of the third suspect. “And now he’s gone because of these cowards.” Authorities believe the suspects drove from West Columbia to North that night to make a drug buy or robbery but aren’t sure what led them to shoot into the young boy’s home, which appears to have been targeted by mistake, police have said.

No drugs were found inside the home, and there are no ties between any of the suspects and the boy’s family, Ravenell said. In addition to Lloyd, police have charged Ethan Thorne Anderson, 19, of West Columbia, and a 17-year-old for their alleged roles in Winston’s death.

Anderson, who was taken into custody Friday, faces a charge of murder, three counts of attempted murder and four counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, Ravenell said. The 17-year-old, whose name has not been released due to his age, was picked up Friday in New York and will be charged as an adult, the sheriff said.

Ravenell credited the U.S. Marshals’ New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force and multiple local, county and state police departments in New York for their efforts to apprehend the out-of-state suspects. “We had law enforcement across the country looking for these suspects,” he said. “I said we would not stop until we found them.” The investigation into the young boy’s killing is ongoing, and Ravenell vowed Monday that anyone else involved would be charged. A 29-year-old man who turned himself in after being named a person of interest in the shooting was in custody Sunday, but Ravenell declined to say what charges the man was facing. The Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office has been assisted in its investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, Lexington County Sheriff’s Department and North police.

*Uvalde Begins To Bury Its Dead In Wake Of School Massacre*

UVALDE, Texas (Reuters) - The grieving Texas town of Uvalde begins laying to rest the 21 school children and teachers who were killed in a mass shooting at an elementary school a week ago, with two funerals scheduled Tuesday for two 10-year-old girls.

According to obituaries on the websites of Uvalde's two funeral homes, Amerie Jo Garza was sweet, sassy and funny, and loved swimming and drawing; Maite Yuleana Rodriguez was an honor student who loved learning about whales and dolphins and dreamt of becoming a marine biologist. Amerie's funeral was set for Tuesday afternoon at Uvalde's Sacred Heart Catholic Church and Maite's in the evening at a Uvalde funeral home.

They were killed along with 17 other students, all aged 9 to 11, and two teachers by an 18-year-old gunman who burst into their fourth-grade classroom and opened fire with a high-velocity AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.

Monday, artists raced to complete a mural depicting white doves on the side of the Ace Bail Bonds building, near the cemetery.

"Those kids were full of life and dreams," said one of the artists, Yanira Castillo, 34, who has lived her entire life in Uvalde. "A town does not get over that. It will affect us forever."

A series of funerals is scheduled for the next two weeks in the town of 16,000, which is nearly 80% Latino or Hispanic and largely Roman Catholic. Among those are services for the two teachers who died, Eva Mireles, 44, and Irma Garcia, 48.

Garcia's husband, Jose Garcia, 50, died of a heart attack two days after the shooting. A joint funeral is planned on Wednesday for the couple, who met in high school and had four children.