(U-WIRE) DURHAM, N.C. — Demario Atwater and Lawrence Lovett, two Durham residents, have been arrested in connection with the murder of Eve Carson, a senior and student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Lovett, 17, surrendered to authorities at about 4:15 a.m. Thursday after a standoff at the 1914 Cook St. residence in Durham, according to a Durham Police Department release.
He has also been charged in the Jan. 18 shooting of Abhijit Mahato, a Duke engineering graduate student who was found dead in his apartment at The Anderson Apartments. But Lovett had not previously been named as a suspect in that murder. Stephen Oates, 19, of Durham was previously charged.
In addition, Lovett is charged with a Feb. 19 robbery on Weymouth Street in Durham.
DPD’s statement said police tried to establish contact with Lovett for more than 90 minutes before establishing phone contact and convincing him to surrender.
Lovett, whose name has also been spelled Lovette in official releases, is believed to be the man pictured in a surveillance photo of a man trying to use an ATM drive-up. The photo was released last week.
Atwater, a 21-year-old Durham resident, was taken into custody at a Rosedale Avenue residence by members of the DPD Selective Enforcement Unit at around 5 a.m. Wednesday, according to a Chapel Hill Police Department statement. He has been charged with first-degree murder in Carson’s death.
Carson’s body was found last Wednesday in Chapel Hill with multiple bullet wounds.
CHPD had alerted DPD of Atwater’s residence and the site was under surveillance when Atwater was seen leaving and was taken into custody.
The home is about two miles from Duke’s campus.
Atwater is being held without bond in Orange County Jail, while Lovett is also being held without bond in Durham County Jail.
CHPD said in a statement that it does not expect him to be transferred to Chapel Hill authorities.
Both arrest warrants have been transferred to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.

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