Duquesne player recounts shooting scene
Sept. 18, 2006 — -- The five Duquesne men's basketball players were shot early Sunday morning after walking away from a woman and her disgruntled boyfriend, neither of whom were students at the Pittsburgh campus, one of the players who was shot told ESPN.com.
Shawn James, who led the country in shot blocking last season at Northeastern, told ESPN.com Monday morning by phone from his dorm room that he and his teammates were shot after they headed back to their dorms following a Black Student Union dance event on campus. James was shot in the foot and was treated and released.
"It wasn't an argument," James said. "We were just coming from a party. This girl that everybody keeps talking about was just a female who liked someone on the basketball team. She was just casually talking to him.
"Her boyfriend called her over and they were arguing," James said as he gave his first-person account. "Then the guy started saying stuff to us. It was our whole team. James (right), seen here in the CAA tournament, on what happened: "We told him we had no time for this and as soon as we turned away, two guys started shooting."
"We told him we had no time for this and as soon as we turned away, two guys started shooting," James said. "It was just some girl who didn't go to the school. She had her arms around one of [the players] and hugged up on his waist and the boyfriend saw that."
"We were walking away, some five to 10 feet away from the guys and then I got shot," James said. James said he got hit and ran through the nearby football field. He thought he injured his toe or sprained his foot at first. But he stopped, "took off my sneaker because it was burning and saw the hole in my foot. My sock was all red."
"I promise you, we were just walking away and then five seconds later, no more, there were shots. It was 12 or more shots. There were two shooters. The guys were just shooting at everything and everybody. The team was hit because we were all together." -- Duquesne forward Shawn James
