Woman arrested in hoops shooting
PITTSBURGH — 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 women 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. It was not immediately clear if Jones had an attorney.
What happened was perhaps the worst crime-related tragedy sustained by an NCAA major college sports program, the shooting of nearly half of a basketball team's primary roster in a few mere seconds of violence.
Three players remained hospitalized today following Sunday's shootings. The most seriously wounded, junior forward Sam Ashaolu, 23, was in critical condition at Mercy Hospital with bullet fragments in his head.
Ashaolu was in critical condition at Mercy Hospital, fighting for his life with bullet fragments in his head. Family members and several friends who drove in from Canada kept a constant vigil at his bedside.
Also hospitalized was Stuard Baldonado, a 6-foot-7 forward and another junior college transfer, who was upgraded to fair condition with left arm and back injuries. He began walking Monday night and is expected to be released from Mercy later in the week.
Baldonado, 21, was told by surgeons that a bullet missed his spinal column — and almost certain paralysis — by one-quarter of an inch before lodging in a lower back muscle.
The bullet is expected to be removed today.
"I'm lucky," Baldonado told The Associated Press in his first interview since the shooting. "I feel much better today."
Junior guard Kojo Mensah, shot in an arm and shoulder, was kept an extra night in UPMC Presbyterian to receive additional injections of antibiotics. Mensah, 21, transferred from Siena to Duquesne three weeks ago.
Wood, 18, and guard Aaron Jackson, 20, related to The Associated Press how the shootings began moments after they left an on-campus party staged Saturday night by the Black Student Union.
"It seemed like the bullets never stopped coming," Jackson said.
"They kept coming, constantly," Wood said.
The basketball team had attended en masse a football game earlier in the day, then went to the dance. Because students from other schools also attended, a Duquesne identification card was not needed to gain admittance.
Several players agreed the shootings occurred after a male, who was not a student, became angry when a woman he accompanied to the dance began talking with the players.
"We didn't have any conflict at all," Wood said. "We were just having a good time. There was jealousy because girls were showing us attention."
Evidence collected by police suggested there were two shooters, not one. Duquesne officials were told by police that .38 caliber shell casings were recovered outside an on-campus garage near the crime scene.
Duquesne coach Ron Everhart called what happened "absolute mayhem." But he was encouraged after NCAA president Myles Brand phoned to offer full support to his staggered program.
Baldonado also was shot in the left arm, and doctors transplanted a vein from his groin to that arm during reconstructive surgery.
Junior center Shawn James, the nation's leading shot blocker last season while playing for Everhart at Northeastern, was out of the hospital but may need additional treatment to have a bullet removed from his left foot.
