By the Associated Press:
Topeka police Chief Bill Cochran says Washburn University football teammates Dwane Simmons and Corey Ballentine were “in the wrong place at the wrong time” when they were shot at an off-campus house party.
Simmons died in the early Sunday shooting. Ballentine, whom the New York Giants drafted hours before the shooting, suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.
Simmons and Ballentine were among about 50 people at the party.
The chief says many people, including Simmons and Ballentine, went outside after a disturbance occurred inside the home. A car pulled up and exchanged words with people before the shooting began. Cochran says the shooting and the earlier altercation don’t appear to have been linked.
A candlelight vigil for Simmons is scheduled for Tuesday on the Washburn campus.
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The father of a Washburn University football player who was killed in a weekend shooting in which a New York Giants draft pick was wounded says the crime “shattered a lot of people.”
Navarro Simmons described the death of his son, Dwane Simmons, as “senseless.” The 23-year-old defensive back from Lee’s Summit, Missouri, was killed early Sunday at an off-campus party in Topeka, Kansas, where the school is located.
Navarro Simmons says the family learned from detectives that his son and his son’s friend and teammate, cornerback Corey Ballentine, were about to leave the party when a vehicle pulled up. He says the people inside asked a question and then started shooting.
The university says Ballentine is expected to make a full recovery. The Giants drafted him in the sixth round on Saturday.
