Student Shot Dead After College GOP Event; Former Friend Held

A former activist in the College Republicans club at Johns Hopkins University has been charged with first-degree murder after a fellow student running for the club’s chairmanship was fatally shot.

Rex Chao, 19, of Port Washington, N.Y., an intern in the office of Rep. Susan Molinari (R-N.Y.) and an accomplished violinist, was shot in the head and chest.

Robert Harwood, 22, a chemistry major from Hopkinton, R.I., where he was the valedictorian of his high school class, was charged with the crime.

Chao and Harwood were exceptional students and had been friends. But when Chao ended the friendship last year, Harwood allegedly began making harassing phone calls and sending Chao obscene electronic mail.

On Wednesday night, Harwood fatally shot Chao after the College Republicans meeting where Harwood tried to block Chao’s election as chairman, police said.

Robert Chao said his son tried to end his friendship with Harwood when the senior became too controlling and possessive, but Harwood began harassing him.

“It’s like he wants Rex to be his only friend,” Robert Chao said.

When Harwood wouldn’t stop, Chao approached the university’s dean of students, who told security to protect Chao from Harwood, Robert Chao said.

A friend of both students also said Harwood had been harassing Chao.

“He definitely has been acting very weird lately. He’d been harassing Rex. He made a lot of nasty phone calls to him, sent a lot of obscene e-mail messages,” said Neil Sander, a former College Republicans chairman.

Harwood, who finished his course work in December, was scheduled to graduate from Johns Hopkins in May and had been living in Rhode Island, said Dennis O’Shea, a university spokesman.

University officials said they were approached by Chao and Harwood earlier this year about their differences. Harwood agreed to notify them whenever he returned to the campus and had done so regarding the Wednesday night meeting, O’Shea said.

“There was never any indication of any intent to do any kind of physical harm,” O’Shea said.

Before the meeting, Rex Chao called home to talk with his mother, who wished him luck.

“Music and politics were his love. I hate politics. I told him that, but it was something he wanted,” Rosetta Chao said Thursday. “We loved him very much. He was very intelligent, very gifted.”

According to police and people at the meeting, Harwood tried to stop Chao’s election, handing out fliers with derogatory comments.

Police say after the meeting broke up, Harwood followed Chao and his girlfriend as they headed back to Chao’s dormitory and shot him once in the head near the university’s library. Witnesses said Harwood then stood over the victim and fired a second shot into his chest.