Two players from last season’s Auburn Tigers football team were shot to death late Saturday night at an apartment complex near the school’s campus in Alabama while a third victim, an offensive lineman who remains on the team, was hospitalized with gunshot wounds, officials said Sunday.
Ladarious Phillips, 20, the Tigers’ only true fullback last season as a sophomore, and ex-lineman Ed Christian, 20, who was a redshirt freshman, were killed when one or more gunmen opened fire after a fight started at the University Heights apartments in Auburn between 10 and 11 p.m. local time, officials and a witness said.
Eric Mack, a sophomore lineman for the Tigers, was also shot and remained in the hospital Sunday, officials said.
In a news conference Sunday afternoon, officials said they were actively hunting for a suspect they identified as Desmonte Leonard, 22, of Montgomery, Ala., and asked if anyone knew of his whereabouts to call 911.
Coach Gene Chizik released a statement shortly before a news conference was held to announce the names of the victims and suspect.
“I am devastated by the passing of three young men, including two that I personally knew in Ed Christian and Ladarious Phillips and my heart goes out to their families,” Chizik said in a statement.
A witness who spoke to reporters Sunday morning said he was at the pool party with one of his friends when they were approached by two other men who started arguing with them over a woman.
Turquorius Vines, 23, said he punched one of the men, while his friend hit both of the men over the head with a bottle. Either one or both of the two men then started shooting, he said. He said his friend was shot and killed, while two others also were hit by gunfire. Vines said he had never before seen the men who he had been arguing with.
“It’s like I lost a lung,” Vines said of his friend. “I don’t know how I’m going to survive this.”
Several emergency vehicles had converged overnight around the University Heights apartment complex where reports indicated a number of students who attend Auburn University typically reside. The building was swathed in yellow police tape.
It appeared the shooting happened in an archway near the apartment complex information center, near the edge of the parking lot. Early Sunday, five uniformed officers guarded the area, which was sealed off with the crime-scene tape, and a handful of crime scene investigators were at work.
After daybreak, several uniformed officers stood near a disaster relief trailer parked at the building’s entrance, which appeared to be a sort of command center. Some bystanders milled about, looking on at the scene.
–ESPN
