Vandy Recruit Killed

Rajaan Bennett, Vanderbilt's top-rated football recruit, killed

By Jeff Lockridge • THE TENNESSEAN • February 18, 2010

Running back Rajaan Bennett, the highest-rated recruit in Vanderbilt's 2010 football signing class, died early this morning in an apparent murder-suicide at the family's home in Powder Springs, Ga.

Powder Springs Lt. Matt Boyd says officers heard gunshots as they arrived at a home early Thursday. Inside they found the body of 18-year-old Rajaan Bennett, a running back at McEachern High School.

Boyd says 39-year-old Clifton Steager of Milledgeville, the ex-boyfriend of Bennett's mother, shot Bennett and then killed himself. A third person, 32-year-old Taiwan Hunter, was wounded and is in surgery.

Vanderbilt Coach Bobby Johnson was visibly shaken and fighting back tears as he addressed the media this morning.

"We heard the news early this morning and just couldn't ... it was hard to believe," Johnson said. "In the little bit of time we’ve known Rajaan, he just seemed to be the ideal man for Vanderbilt and college football really, to tell you the truth. He was really a family person. If you could see him interacting with his mother and his brother and his sisters, you knew he was trying to protect them in the end."

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the incident happened overnight just southwest of downtown Powder Springs, which is 22 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta.

Police identified one of the deceased as Bennett, 18, who two weeks ago signed to play football next fall at Vanderbilt.

In December 2004, another Vanderbilt running back, Kwane Doster, was shot to death in Tampa.

Bennett was the only member of the Commodores' recruiting class to earn four-star status from Rivals.com.

"When you lose players, that’s just extremely unusual," Johnson said. "It’s hard to overcome. You just question everything about what you’re doing and how you’re doing it and how people are doing it, how the world is doing it, how people act, could we have done something different.

"You just want to move the clock back a day let’s get this thing done differently. It’s just horrible to deal with."