Post by longtimebooster on Dec 8, 2022 9:00:53 GMT -8
Crazy story. NMSU hoops player and UNM students go full gangster on the UNM campus.
(I've copied and pasted parts of the story for those who don't have access to WaPo.)
www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/08/new-mexico-state-shooting-mike-peake/
Videos released this week revealed details about a fatal shooting last month that involved a New Mexico State basketball player on the Albuquerque campus of the University of New Mexico.
According to police, an exchange of gunfire in the early hours of Nov. 19 left Aggies forward Mike Peake hospitalized with a gunshot wound to his leg and resulted in the death of a University of New Mexico student. Two other UNM students alleged to have been involved in the incident, one of them a 17-year-old girl, were arrested and charged in connection with what police described as a planned assault on Peake meant to serve as retribution for a previous incident of violence.
Surveillance video released Wednesday by the New Mexico State Police and shared by El Paso television station KVIA appears to confirm key elements of accounts of the incident provided to police by the arrestees, including a student identified as 19-year-old Jonathan Smith. In the video, Peake and the girl appear to be shown walking near a campus building when three people approach and one of them points a gun at Peake’s head. Another assailant hits Peake in the leg from behind with a baseball bat, at which point Peake starts to run away, pulls out a gun and fires at the person who had pointed a gun at him.
That person, identified as 19-year-old UNM student Brandon Travis, fires back before eventually crumpling to the ground. He was later pronounced dead at the scene.
Peake, 21, is shown limping back a few paces toward the scene to retrieve an item he dropped, said by police to have been a computer tablet. He then leaves the area, hopping on his non-injured leg.
Having been shot in the leg, Peake was hospitalized and reportedly required multiple surgeries. He has not been charged, with police considering his actions during the fatal incident, which took place at approximately 3 a.m., as having been in self-defense.
The incident took place hours before the visiting NMSU Aggies were set to play the UNM Lobos in a game that was subsequently canceled. Peake and his teammates were staying in a hotel, and he broke curfew to visit the girl, with whom he had been texting. The girl subsequently told police she lured him onto her campus at the behest of Travis, Smith and a third student, as yet unidentified. The three were said to have believed Peake had been part of a group of NMSU students who assaulted them during an October football game between the Lobos and Aggies at NMSU’s home stadium.
Peake was suspended this week “until the completion of the university’s investigation and the investigation of the proper authorities,” NMSU Athletic Director Mario Moccia said Monday (via the Associated Press).
Three additional NMSU players — Marchelus Avery, Issa Muhammad and Anthony Roy — were suspended for the Aggies game Wednesday at Santa Clara. They were alleged by police this week, per Albuquerque station KOAT, to have arrived at UNM’s campus in a yellow Camaro shortly after the shooting incident and to have helped Peake place items in the vehicle’s trunk.
Later that morning, police agents interviewed NMSU Coach Greg Heiar and associate head coach Dominique Taylor, who was said to have been responsible for bed checks and for staying in the hotel lobby to monitor possible player violations of a midnight curfew. In a report (via KOAT), state police agent David Esquibel wrote that he “emphasized to Coach Taylor how important it was to recover the gun and other items that were placed in the trunk.”
Hours afterward, Esquibel was unable to reach Heiar or Taylor by phone, per the police report. While authorities were still trying to gather information in Albuquerque, the Aggies left for Las Cruces in their team bus. Esquibel wrote that, concerned there might be evidence aboard the bus, he sped after it down an interstate with his “lights and sirens activated.”
Esquibel said that while trying to catch up with the bus, he was informed by an NMSU campus police officer that Taylor had Peake’s gun back at the Albuquerque hotel. When Esquibel caught up to the bus and pulled it over, Aggies assistant Lorenzo Jenkins emerged and turned over Peake’s tablet, which reportedly had blood on it.
Police body-camera footage shared Tuesday by KOAT shows Esquibel interviewing Heiar and Taylor in Albuquerque and retrieving the tablet from Jenkins by the side of the highway. Jenkins, asked whether he knows anything about Peake’s phone, is seen telling police he had “no clue what’s going on” with the phone.
Later footage shows an Aggies official reported to be senior associate athletic director Ed Posaski at his home in Las Cruces, handing Peake’s phone over to police.
“I’m just happy to move — pass the phone along,” Posaski is heard saying, with the phone visible on a kitchen countertop. “Get it out of my possession.”
Taylor is seen in body-camera footage at the hotel giving the gun, wrapped in a towel, to police. According to Albuquerque television station KOB, Taylor said three players not including Peake left the gun in another room at the hotel, to which Taylor led police.
In footage from before the game was canceled and Peake’s items recovered, Heiar is shown (via KOAT) telling police that his wife and daughter are set to attend the Aggies-Lobos game later that day and that news that a NMSU player shot a UNM student will not “go over well in front of 15,000 people.”
“This is about the safety of everybody, and that’s where I’m at,” the coach adds. “Mike’s going to have a long road ahead of him, no matter what. I mean, he may never play basketball a second again for me, ever again — that’s just the reality.
“So I need to protect the rest of my team and the rest of our people while you guys are [garbled] the investigation.”
“I’m just shaken, just sick to my stomach,” Heiar, who was hired by NMSU in March, is seen at another point telling the officer. “This is so terrible and disappointing.”
Heiar, Taylor and the rest of the coaching staff have continued to work with the team and lead it through a slate of games that have proceeded as scheduled, apart from the cancellation of a Dec. 3 game in which NMSU would have hosted UNM.
“No action has been taken against any coaches at this time,” an NMSU spokesman told ESPN on Wednesday. The spokesman added that Peake was recently suspended indefinitely for “some specific infractions … including bringing a gun on a trip.”
The office of the district attorney for Albuquerque’s Bernalillo County announced Wednesday (via ESPN) that it is “actively working with the New Mexico State Police to investigate the conduct of the New Mexico State University staff and players.”
NMSU said Tuesday it was hiring an independent investigative firm to look into the events surrounding the November shooting, including the school’s response in the days that followed.
“We will be incredibly transparent during this process,” NMSU Chancellor Dan Arvizu said in a statement. “We owe that to our community and to everyone associated with our university.”
(I've copied and pasted parts of the story for those who don't have access to WaPo.)
www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/08/new-mexico-state-shooting-mike-peake/
Videos released this week revealed details about a fatal shooting last month that involved a New Mexico State basketball player on the Albuquerque campus of the University of New Mexico.
According to police, an exchange of gunfire in the early hours of Nov. 19 left Aggies forward Mike Peake hospitalized with a gunshot wound to his leg and resulted in the death of a University of New Mexico student. Two other UNM students alleged to have been involved in the incident, one of them a 17-year-old girl, were arrested and charged in connection with what police described as a planned assault on Peake meant to serve as retribution for a previous incident of violence.
Surveillance video released Wednesday by the New Mexico State Police and shared by El Paso television station KVIA appears to confirm key elements of accounts of the incident provided to police by the arrestees, including a student identified as 19-year-old Jonathan Smith. In the video, Peake and the girl appear to be shown walking near a campus building when three people approach and one of them points a gun at Peake’s head. Another assailant hits Peake in the leg from behind with a baseball bat, at which point Peake starts to run away, pulls out a gun and fires at the person who had pointed a gun at him.
That person, identified as 19-year-old UNM student Brandon Travis, fires back before eventually crumpling to the ground. He was later pronounced dead at the scene.
Peake, 21, is shown limping back a few paces toward the scene to retrieve an item he dropped, said by police to have been a computer tablet. He then leaves the area, hopping on his non-injured leg.
Having been shot in the leg, Peake was hospitalized and reportedly required multiple surgeries. He has not been charged, with police considering his actions during the fatal incident, which took place at approximately 3 a.m., as having been in self-defense.
The incident took place hours before the visiting NMSU Aggies were set to play the UNM Lobos in a game that was subsequently canceled. Peake and his teammates were staying in a hotel, and he broke curfew to visit the girl, with whom he had been texting. The girl subsequently told police she lured him onto her campus at the behest of Travis, Smith and a third student, as yet unidentified. The three were said to have believed Peake had been part of a group of NMSU students who assaulted them during an October football game between the Lobos and Aggies at NMSU’s home stadium.
Peake was suspended this week “until the completion of the university’s investigation and the investigation of the proper authorities,” NMSU Athletic Director Mario Moccia said Monday (via the Associated Press).
Three additional NMSU players — Marchelus Avery, Issa Muhammad and Anthony Roy — were suspended for the Aggies game Wednesday at Santa Clara. They were alleged by police this week, per Albuquerque station KOAT, to have arrived at UNM’s campus in a yellow Camaro shortly after the shooting incident and to have helped Peake place items in the vehicle’s trunk.
Later that morning, police agents interviewed NMSU Coach Greg Heiar and associate head coach Dominique Taylor, who was said to have been responsible for bed checks and for staying in the hotel lobby to monitor possible player violations of a midnight curfew. In a report (via KOAT), state police agent David Esquibel wrote that he “emphasized to Coach Taylor how important it was to recover the gun and other items that were placed in the trunk.”
Hours afterward, Esquibel was unable to reach Heiar or Taylor by phone, per the police report. While authorities were still trying to gather information in Albuquerque, the Aggies left for Las Cruces in their team bus. Esquibel wrote that, concerned there might be evidence aboard the bus, he sped after it down an interstate with his “lights and sirens activated.”
Esquibel said that while trying to catch up with the bus, he was informed by an NMSU campus police officer that Taylor had Peake’s gun back at the Albuquerque hotel. When Esquibel caught up to the bus and pulled it over, Aggies assistant Lorenzo Jenkins emerged and turned over Peake’s tablet, which reportedly had blood on it.
Police body-camera footage shared Tuesday by KOAT shows Esquibel interviewing Heiar and Taylor in Albuquerque and retrieving the tablet from Jenkins by the side of the highway. Jenkins, asked whether he knows anything about Peake’s phone, is seen telling police he had “no clue what’s going on” with the phone.
Later footage shows an Aggies official reported to be senior associate athletic director Ed Posaski at his home in Las Cruces, handing Peake’s phone over to police.
“I’m just happy to move — pass the phone along,” Posaski is heard saying, with the phone visible on a kitchen countertop. “Get it out of my possession.”
Taylor is seen in body-camera footage at the hotel giving the gun, wrapped in a towel, to police. According to Albuquerque television station KOB, Taylor said three players not including Peake left the gun in another room at the hotel, to which Taylor led police.
In footage from before the game was canceled and Peake’s items recovered, Heiar is shown (via KOAT) telling police that his wife and daughter are set to attend the Aggies-Lobos game later that day and that news that a NMSU player shot a UNM student will not “go over well in front of 15,000 people.”
“This is about the safety of everybody, and that’s where I’m at,” the coach adds. “Mike’s going to have a long road ahead of him, no matter what. I mean, he may never play basketball a second again for me, ever again — that’s just the reality.
“So I need to protect the rest of my team and the rest of our people while you guys are [garbled] the investigation.”
“I’m just shaken, just sick to my stomach,” Heiar, who was hired by NMSU in March, is seen at another point telling the officer. “This is so terrible and disappointing.”
Heiar, Taylor and the rest of the coaching staff have continued to work with the team and lead it through a slate of games that have proceeded as scheduled, apart from the cancellation of a Dec. 3 game in which NMSU would have hosted UNM.
“No action has been taken against any coaches at this time,” an NMSU spokesman told ESPN on Wednesday. The spokesman added that Peake was recently suspended indefinitely for “some specific infractions … including bringing a gun on a trip.”
The office of the district attorney for Albuquerque’s Bernalillo County announced Wednesday (via ESPN) that it is “actively working with the New Mexico State Police to investigate the conduct of the New Mexico State University staff and players.”
NMSU said Tuesday it was hiring an independent investigative firm to look into the events surrounding the November shooting, including the school’s response in the days that followed.
“We will be incredibly transparent during this process,” NMSU Chancellor Dan Arvizu said in a statement. “We owe that to our community and to everyone associated with our university.”
