Arrest Made In Pittsburgh Basketball Shooting
Posted September 19, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Police reportedly took an 18-year-old man into custody early Tuesday morning, charging Brandon Baynes with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, carrying an unlicensed firearm and criminal conspiracy.
Authorites are still looking for another man, 18-year-old William Holmes.
Both are accused of being triggermen after an incident at a party wound up leading to gunplay that left the players in hospital. Among them – 23-year-old Toronto native Sam Ashaolu, who was the most critically hurt in the melee. He remains in critical condition in a Pittsburgh hospital.
Their detention came after cops hauled 19-year-old Brittany Jones into a local police station, accusing her of helping the gunmen get into the weekend bash.
Authorities contend Jones and six others arrived at the party around midnight, and that she knew several of the men she was with were armed. When she found those being let in wouldn’t be searched, she allegedly relayed that information to the others, then accompanied them into the soiree.
Not long after, the shots rang out and part of the college team lay wounded.
Jones is facing charges of reckless endangerment, carrying a firearm without a license and criminal conspiracy, but her lawyer refuses to say whether she’s cooperating with investigators in order to reduce possible penalties.
Witnesses familiar with the situation claim the motive for the shooting was jealousy. They claim the gunman was upset because the woman he brought to the party talked with one of the players. He allegedly followed a group of team members when they left and ambushed them.
“It seemed like the bullets never stopped coming,” remembers Aaron Johnston, who was hit in the wrist and helped rescue some of his teammates.
University officials insist their security was adequate but this was one of those unpredictable situations that no one could have planned for. “We could have had a policeman every 50 yards and couldn’t have stopped that,” relates Duquesne president Charles Dougherty.
Despite the violence, none of the players involved say they have any intention of transferring out of the school and that the violence has brought them closer together.
