The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, October 01, 1997, Image 1

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    h SPORTS [|| All WF1T1
Homecoming Exhibiting excellence October i, 1997
Former Nebraska volleyball player Allison The fiber arts of Nebraska 4-H youth adorn the
Weston returned to the NU Coliseum Tuesday wall%of the Textiles, Clothing & Design Gallery
night to have her jersey retired. PAGE 7 on East Campus. PAGE 9 Sunny and warm, high
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VOL. 97 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 27
Man killed in home;
i police arrest son, 17
. Reports say victim threatened wife
i -
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
Through a solid oak door,
across a porch with potted plants
neatly arranged, a slain father was
carried out of his home Tuesday
afternoon.
More than 14
hours prior, John
E. Dunagan, 56,
was found dead
in his living
room with 12
gauge shotgun
wounds. His 17
year-old son,
Matthew, was
ip Dunagan arrested shortly
-f ^after police began their investiga
tion. Matthew Dunagan was
jailed on suspicion of first-de|ree
murder.
Crime scene technicians and
investigators spent the day at
4425 Browning Place, surrounded
* by homes not old enough to have
shade trees in the affluent neigh
borhoods of southeast Lincoln.
Lancaster County prosecutors
spent Tuesday night reviewing
rejspftS) trying to determine what
charges would be filed today.
Lincoln police were called to
the home at 12:40 a.m. by a 911
-call from Kathryn Dunagan,
John’s wife and Matthew’s moth
er.
When officers arrived at the
home, they found John Dunagan
lying on the living room couch
with shotgun wounds. At a morn
ing press conference, Lincoln
Police Chief Tom Casady refused
to say how many gunshot wounds
the man had received, but an affi
davit filed in Lancaster County
Court stated that Matthew
dunagan fired three times. The
shotgun was found in the home.
Paramedics were called to the
home, but John Dunagan was pro
nounced dead at Jb£ scene and not
moved.
Mother, father and son were
home when the shooting
occurred, Casady said. He refused
tb release details of the incident,
but only said the investigation is
continuing. ,
The affidavit said John
Dunagan had been threatening his
wife and had done so several
times before. Two hours later, as
the elder" Dunagan was lying on
the couch, police claim Matthew
Dunagan shot his father.
Matthew Dunagan, a Lincoln
Pius X student, is being held in
the Lincoln Attention Center for
Youth. ,
Lancaster County Chief
Deputy Attorney John Colborn
said Matthew Dunagan will not
be charged until after prosecutors
get all the investigative informa
tion. He said an autopsy was
scheduled for Tuesday, and he did
not expect to charge the boy until
today.
Under Nebraska law, Matthew
Dunagan can be charged as an
adult. ^
“After we reviewYhe reports,
we will make that decision,”
According to Casady, neither
father nor son had a previous
criminal history, and the Lincoln
Police Department had never
been called to the home.
Most of the neighborhood was
aslfeep during the incident. Those
who were home Tuesday after
npopsaid the family was nice, but
they didn’t know them well.
The death is the fifth homicide
in Lincoln this year. More than 80
percent of all homicides in
Lancaster County this decade are
domestically related, according to
law enforcement records.
——jti rrn rrrrcrr rrn, •--—
Lane Hickenbottom/DN —
MORTICIANS REMOVE John Dunagan’s body from his home on 4425
Rrowning Place. His 17-year-old son, Matthew Dunagan, is being held on
suspicion of first-degree murder.
, Hoppner, McFarland announce
gubernatorial candidacies
| ■ The two Democratic hopefuls
l say their campaigns will focus on
education, tax values and
Nebraska’s resources.
By Brian Carlson
Assignment Reporter
After months of questions and doubt as to
who would fill the Democratic void in the gov
ernor’s race, the party now has two candidates.'
Bill Hoppner, a former staff worker for U.S.
Sens. Jim Exon and Bob Kerrey, and Jim
McFarland, a former state senator, have
announced their candidacies for the 1998
Democratic nomination for governor.
Hoppner’s 1998 campaign will be his sec
ond bid for governor. In 1990, he lost the
Democratic primary by 41 votes to Ben
Nelson, the eventual winner in die general elec
tion and two-term governor.
Hoppner said he reached his decision after
consulting with his family and weighing his
statewide support.
“I think I have the character, ability and
experience to be a very good governor for
1 _:
Nebraska, especially as we approach the 21st
century,” he said.
Hoppner said as governor, he would seek to
address the issues of the entire state. Education,
efficient government and an equitable tax sys
tem are important, he said.
“Basically, the race for governor should be
a discussion about the values we all share as
Nebraskans,” Hoppner said.
McFarland, who represented Lincoln’s 28th
legislative district from 1986-91, said he began
considering a bid after Lt. dov. Kim Robak in
June announced she would not run. When no
other Democrat stepped forward, he said, the
idea became more serious.
McFarland said his campaign message
would be to protect and develop Nebraska’s
human and natural resources.
Tax breaks for businesses and other forms
of “corporate welfare” havfc failed to lure large
corporations to Nebraska, McFarland said. He
said the state should focus on churning out its
Please see DEMOCRATS on 2
Education professor dies
By Erin Gibson
Senior Reporter
..-.. ■ ■■ ■
Webster Robbins, an assistant professor
considered a father of multicultural educa
tion programs in the Teachers College and at
the University of Nebraska-Lineoln, died at
7 p.m. Monday, after suffering a heart attack
while driving his van south on 13th Street.
He was 60.
Robbins, a vibrant man who had a histo
ry of heart problems, also championed
defeating stereotypes of American Indians
in Lincoln and was the first American Indian
doctorate at UNL in 1976.
Robbins said “education was supposed
to prepare one for life,” in a 1986 interview
with the Lincoln Journal Star.
And he devoted his 21 years at UNL to
teaching and talking with students both in
and out of the classroom to make sure each
graduated as an informed and considerate
adult, said Beth Franklin, chairwoman of
the Center for Curriculum and Instruction.
Students’ parents often called Robbins
and thanked him for the personal attention
he gave their college-aged children, Franklin
said. She often saw him sitting outside in
Funeral services for Robbins will be
at 11 a.m. Friday in the Lutheran
Student Center, 535 N. 16th St.
front of buildings for hours after his classes
were over, talking to students, she said.
“The students just really, really respond
ed to him,” she said. “They loved him, and
they felt that he made a difference in their
lives.”
He gave Teachers College students direc
tion in life by teaching them to deal with
their own ethnic background, affirm their
own culture and beliefs, and then realize
how to teach their students respect for one
another, Franklin said.
But his greatest contribution to educa
tion at UNL was his ability to inspire stu
dents through his fluid and entrancing story
telling, she said. He colored his lectures with
stories about his and others’ lives in order to
impress the effects of racism and acceptance
upon students.
Unlike any other professor, he was able
to get these concepts across, Franklin said.
Indeed, Robbins introduced the UNL
■*. Please see ROBBINS on 3
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