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Tuesday, September 19, 2006

My Suspicion...

...that some of the Duquesne trouble came from within has been confirmed. What's also been confirmed is the selfless heroism of two of the players:

'A woman was arrested on weapons-related charges stemming from the shootings of five members of the Duquesne University basketball team, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

The woman was accused of helping six men, some of whom she knew were armed, get into a school dance, the documents said.

Duquesne sophomore Brittany Jones, 19, was arrested Monday on charges of reckless endangerment, carrying a firearm without a license and criminal conspiracy, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Jones was arraigned and jailed after she was unable to post $2,000 bond Tuesday morning.

Three players remained hospitalized Tuesday following Sunday's shootings after the dance sponsored by the school's Black Student Union. The most seriously wounded, junior forward Sam Ashaolu, 23, was in critical condition at Mercy Hospital with bullet fragments in his head.

According to a criminal complaint, Jones, who is active with the Black Student Union, got a call from a man asking if he and his brother could come to the dance. They arrived with four others about midnight.

While walking to the party, several of the men asked Jones if they were going to be "patted down" before entering, authorities said. The doorman allegedly told Jones that partygoers weren't being searched, and the men went into the dance, police said.

Jones's attorney, James Ecker, would not confirm Tuesday whether she was cooperating with authorities and would not comment on reports that authorities may drop charges if she provides information to the police.

"I can say she's spent a lot of time with police in the last couple of days, Sunday and Monday," Ecker said.

"Until this case goes to a hearing or trial, she's presumed innocent," he said.

In interviews Monday with The Associated Press, several players said the shooter was a non-student unhappy that the woman he accompanied to the dance had talked with a player. The shooter and at least one other man followed the players when they left the dance to walk to their dormitory, they said.

When the gunfire erupted freshman Stephen Wood and teammate Aaron Jackson dropped to the ground.

"It seemed like the bullets never stopped coming," Jackson said, rubbing the left wrist that was grazed by a bullet.

Junior guard Kojo Mensah, 6-foot-7 forward Stuard Baldonado and Ashaolu were the first players hit in the attack.

Junior center Shawn James was wounded on the foot but escaped by running across the nearby football field.

Wood, who was not struck, saw Baldonado bleeding badly from his left arm and quickly took off his own shirt and applied a tourniquet.

"I turned away, and saw Stu on the floor, and my first reaction was to take my shirt off and try to stop the bleeding," Wood said. "Then I turned around and I saw Sam laying there."

Though wounded, Mensah aided several players by helping to barricade them behind a nearby steel door. Jackson lifted the 250-pound Baldonado on his back, carried him to his car and drove him to nearby Mercy Hospital.

"He was real heavy," Jackson said. "He's the strongest guy I've ever met. But when he passed out on me in the car, man, that really (was bad)."

Baldonado was in serious but improving condition with left arm and back injuries. He said surgeons explained that a bullet missed his spinal column by one-quarter of an inch before lodging in a lower back muscle. Surgery to remove the bullet was planned for Tuesday.

"I'm lucky," he said. "I feel much better today."

Baldonado, the most promising of the Duquesne's 10 recruits, likely won't play this season because his back injury will need two to three months of rehabilitation. He is expected to be released from the hospital by the end of the week.

The former Miami-Dade Community College player also was shot in the left arm. Doctors transplanted a vein from his groin to that arm during reconstructive surgery.

Mensah, shot in an arm and shoulder, was kept overnight at UPMC Presbyterian to receive additional injections of antibiotics but was expected to be discharged later Tuesday.

James, the nation's leading shot blocker last season while playing at Northeastern, was released from the hospital but still has the bullet lodged in his left foot.

Jackson and Wood downplayed their roles in the attack, saying they didn't consider themselves heroes.

"We didn't think about this, or to do that," Jackson said. "You think, `Oh, that's my man, we're going to look out for him.' "

University president Charles Dougherty said he believed the incident was the first ever shooting on the downtown campus of 10,000 students. He said additional safety measures will be considered, though it's unlikely Sunday's shootings could have been prevented.

"We could have had a policeman every 50 yards and couldn't have stopped that," he said.

None of the players said they were considering a transfer.

"Our morale is down right now, but we have so much team chemistry," Jackson said. "We found out we really love each other, and we've only known each other for a month."'





Thanks to Mike for the story.