The two Tarboro brothers charged with killing two men at an N.C. State University football tailgate party Saturday evening were high school math whizzes who had racked up petty drug charges during the past several years.

Timothy Wayne Johnson, an N.C. State student, and his younger brother, Tony Harrell Johnson, were arrested late Saturday night and early Sunday, and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. They each have criminal records that include minor drug offenses but no violent crimes.

Tony Johnson, 20, fled to Wilson after the shootings but turned himself in to Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday, according to a news release. Timothy Johnson, 22, was picked up just before midnight at 3416 Harden Road in Raleigh, a two-story house in a quiet residential neighborhood, a sheriff's office spokeswoman said. Tony Johnson's Chrysler Cirrus was found at Carolina Pottery in Smithfield.

Ashley Renee Brown, 18, was arrested Sunday morning in Tarboro and charged as an accessory after the fact of murder. Brown drove Tony Johnson to a hotel and helped him secure a room, the arrest warrant said.

The Wake County Sheriff's Department provided few details about Saturday night's shooting or the arrests pending further investigation.

The Johnson brothers were being held in the Wake County jail without bail. They will appear before a district court judge Tuesday morning. Thomas Johnson, the boys' father, said the family cannot afford to retain a lawyer.

Brown was being held in the Wake County jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.

It was second time in as many years that an N.C. State football game was the occasion for violent death. In November 2003, six people died when a drunken driver smashed into a cluster of pedestrians gathered at the scene of a previous accident on Chapel Hill Road after a game.

Fight intensifies

On Saturday evening, Timothy and Tony Johnson were headed to the game as they had done dozens of times before, said their mother, Ann Johnson. Timothy, due to graduate from N.C. State in May, wanted to become a psychologist after graduating. Tony, who had moved back home recently, dropped out of Wake Technical Community College this past year, his mother said.

Wake County Sheriff's deputies say the Johnson brothers killed Kevin M. McCann of Chicago and 2nd Lt. Brett Johnson Harman, a Camp Lejeune Marine from Park Ridge, Ill., both 23. Witnesses said the Johnson brothers exchanged punches with the two victims earlier in the evening after a carton of beer cans was thrown at Tony Johnson's car as he sped through a crowded parking lot just off Trinity Road. The brothers returned -- this time with a handgun -- just after the 6 p.m. kickoff of the season opener against the University of Richmond.

One of the Johnson brothers offered tailgater M. Brian Smith, 31, $200 to point out the man who had fought him earlier, Smith said. "He said, 'I got a .38 special' ... and I was like, 'Whatever,' " Smith said, declining the money.

Gunshots pierced the air a short time later.

Thomas Johnson, who spoke with his sons Sunday, said that Tony had been beaten by a group of men, and that Timothy went to his car for his gun. He fired it not intending to hurt anyone, but only to break up the brawl, his father said. Timothy, he said, did not know he had shot anyone.

McCann died at the scene; Harman died later that evening at WakeMed. Both hailed from the Chicago area, from quiet suburban neighborhoods just two miles apart.

Harman relocated to Camp Lejeune after graduating in 2003 from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. He was an infantry officer, said Gunnery Sgt. Marcus McAllister, a spokesman for the 2nd Marine Division, of which Harman was a member.

"I'm shocked. His death was so senseless," said 1st Lt. Clark Carpenter, a Camp Lejeune spokesman. "There was just no reason for it. ... He was just starting his career as an officer."

Quiet neighbors

On Sunday afternoon, residents in both of the victims' neighborhoods at the edge of Chicago said they were outraged by the deaths. They wanted to give the families time to grieve.

"They are quiet people," neighbor Lillian Rutherford said of the McCanns. Rutherford has lived in the neighborhood, about two miles from the city's O'Hare International Airport, for 50 years.

She watched the McCanns raise two boys, Terry, the oldest, and Kevin, she said.

"They were always outside, throwing the ball around," she said. "Like all kids do."

She said she didn't know why McCann was in North Carolina.

McCann's parents, one a school counselor and the other a nurse at a busy Chicago hospital, have lived in the two-story home on Octavia Avenue for almost 30 years, Rutherford said. On Sunday, the street was lined with the extended family's cars, she said.

Kevin had graduated from college last year, and the family was recently celebrating their older son's marriage, Rutherford said.

"They were ideal children," she said. "They were the best kids on the block. "

"It's just the most tragic thing that has happened to our street."

Cheers turn to worries

News of the Johnsons' arrests will shock the Tarboro community, said Raymond Privott, their middle school principal and neighbor.

"I'm sure everyone in the community will be knocked off their feet," Privott said. "They were both very good students, brilliant I'd say."

Timothy Johnson's roommates at Wildwood of Lake Johnson Apartments on Trillium Circle were moving out of the apartment Sunday afternoon. One roommate declined to answer questions.

On Saturday evening, the Johnsons' parents had cheered for N.C. State in the living room of their home in Tarboro, which is about 60 miles east of Raleigh in Edgecombe County. When the station interrupted game coverage to report the shootings, Ann said, she shuddered to think her boys could be in the midst of the chaos.

"We immediately called their cell phones because we were worried they'd been hurt at the tailgating," Ann Johnson said Sunday morning, as she choked back tears. "It's not unusual for them to not answer their phones, so we tried to not worry."

By 9 p.m., a deputy from the Wake County Sheriff's Department arrived at the Johnsons' home to look for Tony and Timothy.

Harman, 23, was a Camp Lejeune Marine from Illinois.