Alice Fishburn: Shot where I did my laundry

Harvard University is embroiled in a scandal involving drugs, murder and allegations of racism after a man was shot dead on campus.

The murder last week of Justin Cosby, an alleged drug dealer, has stunned America’s oldest Ivy League institution. The expulsion of a female student believed to be linked to the killing has added to the university’s problems after she claimed that she was being targeted because she was black and poor.

Chanequa Campbell, 21, who grew up in a rough, working-class Brooklyn neighbourhood, was admitted to Harvard after winning scholarships from The New York Times and Coca-Cola, and was due to graduate next month. She was ordered off campus last week.

“I do believe that I am being singled out . . . the honest answer is I’m black and I’m poor,” Ms Campbell told The Boston Globe.

“I’m from New York and I walk in a certain way and I keep my clothes in a certain way. It’s something that labels me as different from everyone else.” A Harvard official said that the university had taken “appropriate steps”.

The case has raised questions about the prevalence of drug use at the university and the ability of alleged dealers to enter campus.

Ms Campbell is believed to have been expelled from the university — the alma mater of Barack Obama and seven former US presidents — because of her alleged involvement in the death of Mr Cosby, 21, which prosecutors say was a botched robbery.

Mr Cosby was shot in the stomach in a university dormitory. Jordan Copney, from New York, has been charged with his murder. Mr Copney, 20, who is a professional songwriter and does not study at Harvard, is accused of targeting Mr Cosby because he was carrying a stash of marijuana and $1,000 (£627) in cash.

Ms Campbell is a friend of Mr Copney’s long-term girlfriend, another Harvard student. Prosecutors claim that Mr Copney knew Mr Cosby through two female students at Harvard, to whom Mr Cosby allegedly sold drugs.

One issue is how the alleged killer gained access to the dormitory. Officials say that he obtained a security pass from a Harvard student.

Ms Campbell said that she lived in Kirkland annex and not in Kirkland House, where Mr Cosby was shot, and insisted that Mr Copney did not use her Harvard card to get in.

Gerard Leone, the district attorney prosecuting the case, said that Mr Copney, the son of a retired New York police officer, had travelled to Harvard with the intent of robbing Mr Cosby, who was unarmed. “During the course of the rip-off, things go bad and Justin Cosby gets shot to death,” Mr Leone said.

Prosecutors said that Mr Cosby was “visiting friends on the campus”. He was confronted by Mr Copney and “during the course of the confrontation, multiple shots were fired. One of those shots struck Cosby, resulting in his death.” After he was shot, the victim ran up a street before collapsing. He died several hours later in hospital.

Ms Campbell said: “I have no knowledge of anything that happened, none whatsoever.” She said that she was taking a final exam on the afternoon of the murder.

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