A Howard University football player celebrated Christmas by getting killed in a botched home invasion. For those unfamiliar with Howard University, it is a black college in Washington DC. TN Coates flunked out of Howard. It’s probably the most politically connected black college on earth. That’s why it has an endowment of half a billion. It’s also why it is counted as one of the Black Ivies.

A former coach and family friend of the Howard Bison running back who was one of two suspects fatally shot during an attempted robbery in Texas says Terrence Neal Tusan was a “good kid” and student.

Tusan, 22, was killed on Sunday at a Denton, Texas, apartment complex. Denton police say five people were involved in some sort of altercation during the home-invasion robbery.

“He was a good kid,” Clarence Nevels, a former coach and mentor to Tusan, told the Denton Record-Chronicle. “He had good grades and was just down at AT&T Stadium for Thanksgiving Day Madness Youth Football speaking to students about believing in themselves.”

Tusan, who was at home on holiday break from the Washington D.C., school, was killed along with 18-year-old Jakobi Dmon Gipson.

Police say three men forced their way into an apartment and gunfire broke out, leaving two suspects dead and two residents wounded. The third suspect fled and reportedly remains at large.

Nevels, who said he knew Tusan for 15 years, told the Denton newspaper that Tusan didn’t have a criminal history and wasn’t known to be associated with drugs.

“You have to wonder, what would be the purpose to throw his life away?” Nevels said, according to the Record-Chronicle’s report.

Tusan, a junior for Howard, had 331 rushing yards with two touchdowns this season as a backup running back, including a 70-yard TD in a 38-25 loss to Rutgers.

Police recovered two guns, one belonging to a victim and another belonging to a suspect. Police haven’t specified who opened fire.

“Terrence was the only child [his mother, Donna Tusan] had left, and now he is gone, too,” said Nevels, who the newspaper reported was speaking on behalf of the Tusan family. “We just want to ask anyone looking into this incident to investigate further.”

It’s not much of a mystery, of course. Terrence and Jakobi decided to rob someone, probably over drugs or a lack of respect. A gun fright erupted and the result was inevitable. Young black males commit an enormous amount of crime and this is fairly typical of what happens in the ghetto. The technique of bursting into a home and shooting up the place is popular for reasons no one bothers to explore. It does seem to be a more popular murder technique with blacks than other races.

Another mystery never discussed is why black males commit so much crime. This story is a familiar one. A young man seems to have some promise so coaches and teachers take a special interest in him, hoping he can be an exception. Everything goes well until he suddenly decides to rob a liquor store or murder a drug dealer. It’s not like the kid started to hang with a bad crowd or start taking drugs. It just all goes wrong all of a sudden for no obvious reason.

One reason is the extreme racial solidarity in black America. In white America, keeping the good kids away from the bad kids is the focus of everyone. Even back in the old days adults had no trouble culling the defects from the herd. Somewhere around puberty, the stupid and uncontrollable ended up in “special” classes, away from the rest of the students. That is not permitted in black culture.

The result of this is Terrance gets to hang with Jakobi as an equal, but they should never be treated as equals. Jakobi is high status in the hood. His ghetto name is what you go on here. In the white world, Dakota is not allowed anywhere near Dwayne and that was the case from about the fifth grade. By the time Dakota is at college, Dwayne is long gone. In black America. Terrence is never allowed out of the hood. He has to “keeps it real.” Otherwise, he runs the risk of being a “Tom” or acting white.