Updated 12:58 p.m. Saturday June 25Gateway (Monroeville, Pa.)
rising senior Darrell Turner was killed in a North Carolina shooting that also injured teammate Thomas Woodson.
The
gunfire occurred around 10 p.m. Thursday in a parking lot in Durham, N.C.
Turner was rushed to Duke University Hospital but was pronounced dead a
short time later. Woodson was shot in the leg but is in stable condition
with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police arrested 22-year-old Gabriel James Gamez, of San Antonio, roughly four hours after the shooting.
According
to reports, Turner and Woodson were traveling to Bradenton, Fla., to
play in the IMG Madden 7-on-7 Championships. Both were members of an all-star team tabbed WPA Swag.
Along the way, they were taking unofficial recruiting stops to ACC
schools. Duke spokesman Keith Lawrence told WRAL.com that the teens were
scheduled to meet a Duke University athletic staff Friday
morning.
"It was really just supposed to be fun and football," Turner's father, also named Darrell Turner, told WRAL.com.
Instead,
police say, Gamez, left a local restaurant, had an altercation with
Turner and Woodson and shot the boys. He was apprehended at a nearby
Springhill Marriott hotel, police said. He didn't know the victims and investigators don't know what prompted the shooting.
Gamez was
in town, reportedly, to attend a family funeral. According to court
records from Bexar County, Texas, he was due in court there July 19 on a
theft charge, WRAL reported. His criminal record in Texas includes
charges for unlawful weapon, drunken driving and marijuana possession.
"I think this is just a chance encounter between the youth going back to their hotel and the suspect going back to his hotel," Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez told the Associated Press. "When they encountered each other, there was some sort of verbal exchange. ... The suspect drew a firearm and started firing at them."
Reports indicate that as Gamez started shooting, numerous players ran but that Turner was shot twice in the back and Woodson was also hit.
A
Facebook fan page was set up Friday morning in Turner's memory. By the afternoon, it had more than 2,100 fans. By Saturday afternoon, that total had risen to 3,236.
Turner had 67 tackles in 2010, helping Gateway to a 12-1 season. He was considered a Division I prospect.
"It's just senseless," Turner's father told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "It didn't have to happen."
