NEW YORK (AP) — A college basketball player was killed and eight other people were wounded Monday in an early-morning shooting at a gathering in Harlem, New York City police said.
Officers responded around 12:40 a.m. to reports of a shooting on a footpath along FDR Drive and found several people wounded. Other victims went to hospitals on their own, officials said.
Darius Lee, a 21-year-old senior at Houston Baptist University in Texas, was killed, the university said. He grew up in Harlem, attended St. Raymond High School for Boys in the Bronx and was back home for summer break.
The wounded included six other males and two females, police said.
“This Father’s Day weekend is a weekend where people were supposed to be able to enjoy themselves with their families,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a news conference.
The investigation was ongoing Monday and police didn’t immediately have details about the gathering, possible suspects or what may have led to the shooting.
A gun was recovered from the scene, police said.
The New York Daily News reported that the gathering was a cookout organized by Harlem rapper Rich Rhymer, who posted invitations on his Instagram account. He noted that his two prior cookouts had been free of violence and wrote: “LETS GO FOR A 3PEAT.”
Lee, a guard and forward, played basketball at a community college in New York’s Sullivan County before enrolling at Houston Baptist University. He was scheduled to graduate in December with a bachelor’s degree in sports management, the university said.
Lee was recently named the university’s Male Student-Athlete of the Year. He led the team in scoring and rebounding last season, and finished sixth in the nation in steals per game, earning a second team All-Southland Conference selection.
Houston Baptist Coach Ron Cottrell described Lee as a “remarkable young man” and a “joy to coach.”
“We are in shock and cannot wrap our heads around this news,” Cottrell said in a statement posted on the university’s website. “My heart breaks for his mom, his sister and his entire family, and for our basketball team… As great of a basketball player as he was, he was an even better person.”
The shooting comes amid national concern over gun violence and as the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to strike down a law that makes it difficult to legally carry a handgun in New York.
Shootings are down 11% so far this year in New York City, compared to last year. Murders are down 12% but are still at their second-highest level since 2012.
Geez. Sorry to say but well shit, you just can’t go to these gatherings, practically anywhere unless you want to risk your life. I truly truly wonder where all these shooters’ father are / were and if they were out on this bail reform crap that people (mostly women) marched for. Very sad. The university will give him his degree which will mean little to his mother.
We have to wonder what is the solution to all this violence and more and more people thinking the only way to settle anything, is to kill someone. We also need to remember that years ago we didn’t have all the news media we have today, along with social electronics to get info from all kinds of reporting. Many parents also do not discipline their children as to what is right and what is wrong. What happened to the ten commandments? There are countries where such violence is not reported and there is no copy catting, but there are consequenses and handled in a timely manner. Don’t sit in jail for years on a death sentence! Then there is so much violence in the motion pictures of today. I think Hollywood could produce much better movies.
Having faith in a higher power and getting community to be involved in positive living it’s not hard we did it before we can do it again
Till Black Folks are willing to accept that a lot of black males are degenerate criminals more akin to rabid dogs how much of a pos can you be to callously steal this young man life it will take incarcerating’s the criminals at unprecedented levels a great number of black parents have abdicated they responsibilities in raising the children they bred incarcerating them is the only answer not more of the same bs social programs these are rabid dogs masquerading as humans