Son of parents slain in dorm a ‘good kid’

DETROIT (AP) — A suburban Chicago couple whose 19-year-old son allegedly shot them to death at his college dormitory in Michigan raised him and their two other children well, a family friend said Sunday.

James Eric Davis Sr. — who went by his middle name — and his wife, Diva, were “doting parents” and raised James Eric Davis’ Jr. “phenomenally,” said Jordan Murphy, who worked from 2004 to 2008 with Davis Sr. in Chicago as Illinois Army National Guard recruiters.

The parents were slain Friday morning in Davis Jr.’s Campbell Hall room at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant. Davis Jr. fled and was arrested Saturday morning. He faces murder and gun charges.

“I’ve known him since he was 4 or 5,” Murphy said of Davis Jr. “From knowing the family . . . something out-of-character occurred.

“Something external affected the situation that caused this unfortunate tragedy to occur.”

Davis Jr.’s parents had just picked him up from a hospital, where he was brought for suspected drug abuse a day earlier after campus police officers said he was acting erratically, university police Chief Bill Yeagley has said. They took him to his dorm to pack up for spring break when they were shot with a gun that belonged to Davis Sr.

Authorities have not said whether drugs were found in Davis Jr.’s system.

“Junior is a good kid. He’s a great young man,” Murphy said of Davis Jr.