Mike Peake’s New Mexico State teammates and coaches reportedly assisted him immediately after last month’s New Mexico campus shooting. (Sam Wasson/Getty Images)
New Mexico State players and assistant coaches were helping teammate Mike Peake after a deadly shooting last month at the University of New Mexico, according to new reports from the Albuquerque Journal and KOAT-TV.
Peake was “lured” to the New Mexico campus by four Lobos students in Albuquerque the night before the two teams were due to play last month. The students, police say, wanted to “attack” Peake at a dorm, part of a revenge plot that stemmed from an altercation at a soccer game between the two schools in October.
According to the Journal, Peake arrived at a dormitory around 3 a.m. on November 19 and was confronted by three men. One of them, 19-year-old Brandon Travis, allegedly shot Peake in the leg. Peake then reportedly fired back with his own gun and punched Travis four times, killing him.
A 17-year-old girl was arrested for her role in the incident. Another man, 19-year-old Jonathan Smith, was also charged.
The basketball game was then canceled.
After the shooting, Peake reportedly met with three of his teammates on the New Mexico campus and placed his gun and a tablet in the trunk of their car. The teammates then drove off, according to the report, and called both assistant coach Dominique Taylor and head coach Greg Heiar.
The basketball team then left town, but Taylor stayed behind at the hotel where the team was staying. At around 3:45 p.m., more than 12 hours after the reported shooting, Taylor turned the gun over to police.
The team bus left the hotel at around 11:30 am after the game was called off. An officer chased the bus down the interstate and stopped it in an apparent attempt to locate the items Peake had reportedly placed in the trunk of his teammates’ car. The police obtained his tablet in a backpack.
The three teammates, Issa Muhammad, Marchelus Avery and Anthony Roy, all played in Monday night’s New Mexico State game. Roy did not travel with the team to California Tuesday ahead of their game in Santa Clara on Wednesday due to “personal reasons.”
The story goes on
None of those players, coaches or Peake have been charged in the incident. Peake was described as a victim in the initial report.
The university has since planned to hire an independent investigator to review the incident.
“We will be incredibly transparent during this process,” New Mexico State Chancellor Dan Arvizu said in a statement. “We owe that to our community and everyone associated with our university. The selected firm is encouraged to review public documents relating to this case and has full authority to speak to any NMSU employee, student or other person as necessary to ensure that we fully understand the facts.
“If we should have done something differently, this report will let us know. In the last day we received a number of new questions about this case. Unfortunately, some of the information reported in the media has not been made available to NMSU. In order to do justice to everyone involved, it is important to have a more accurate understanding of what happened.”
Peake was suspended indefinitely by the team on Monday. The 21-year-old joined the program before last season. Sports director Mario Moccia could not comment on his status as a student at the school.
“Mike is suspended from our basketball team pending the completion of the university investigation and the investigation of the relevant authorities,” Moccia said via The Associated Press. “When these investigations will be completed I cannot say… If there are any criticisms of this decision, I am in a position to take them on myself.
“I’ve known this player for years and I know what kind of person he is. I didn’t feel the need to jump to conclusions. I wanted to give the investigation time before making any decisions.”