Suspect Is Identified in Shooting

A suspect charged in the March 2 shooting of Rodney Anderson, a Cal State Fullerton freshman basketball player last season, was identified as Curtis Vaughn Jackson by the investigating officer Saturday.

Jackson, 24, was charged Thursday with four counts of attempted murder and is being held at Los Angeles County Jail, said Louie Aguilera, a detective with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.

The suspect, whose last known address was in Hawthorne, had been in custody for three months for a parole violation before the new charges were filed, according to Aguilera. The detective said the suspect is a “known gang member,” had served six years in prison for robbery and is “a candidate for the three-strikes law.”

Anderson was shot three times by an assailant in his family’s Los Angeles neighborhood two days before Fullerton’s final game of the season. He is partially paralyzed from the injuries.

Aguilera said the area has a high level of gang activity but that Anderson didn’t have any gang associations. “It appears from our investigation that the shooting was a random thing,” Aguilera said.

Aguilera said police are still seeking the driver of an automobile they believe was used during the shooting.

Anderson, who plans to return to the university as a student in February, said Saturday he did not want to comment on the suspect being charged.

“We’re all still puzzled by the whole thing,” said Anderson’s mother, Martha.

A fund has been established by the University Advancement Foundation to help defray Anderson’s medical expenses, and the athletic department plans to donate the proceeds from Fullerton’s season-opening game against Simon Fraser Nov. 8 to the fund. Coach Donny Daniels said Anderson and his family will be invited to attend the game.

Rich Bossenmeyer, a Cal State Fullerton assistant coach last season who is now the coach at Tustin High, has kept up regular contact with Anderson since the shooting, and visited him regularly when he was hospitalized.

“No matter what happens with this case in the legal system, it doesn’t change Rodney’s day-to-day life, and that’s the tough part,” Bossenmeyer said Saturday. “But Rodney has handled it all very well.”