A shooting occurred early on Saturday morning at the University of New Mexico, leaving a basketball player from New Mexico State hospitalized after being shot and killing one of his attackers.
Mike Peake, a forward for NMSU, arrived at UNM’s Albuquerque campus early on Saturday morning, according to state police, after students there planned to trick him into an attack.
The UNM student who passed away after being shot by Peake, 21, was named by police as 19-year-old Brandon Travis. Jonathan Smith, 19, one of the other students implicated, has been charged with two charges of tampering with evidence, conspiracy, and aggravated violence.
An unnamed 17-year-old female who was reportedly among the group of UNM students was charged with aggravated violence and conspiracy, according to the New Mexico state police, and was taken into custody for juveniles.
I am deeply saddened by the news of a fatal shooting on the University of New Mexico campus last night.
The state has been in contact with UNM & offered our support, and my office will continue to monitor the situation. My thoughts are with the loved ones of all those affected.
— Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (@GovMLG) November 19, 2022
Peake’s condition was stated as stable by a UNM representative. The night before their game against the host Lobos on Saturday, he and his Aggies teammates were lodgings in Albuquerque. That game was postponed following the shooting. Whether it will be made up is unknown. Dec. 3’s UNM game against NMSU is planned, but that match’s fate is also up in the air.
The final football game between Virginia and Virginia Tech has been postponed.
The institution stated that moving the future, the baggage of athletes will be examined before they boarded team buses and that they are not permitted to bring guns on team excursions.
According to an affidavit for an arrest warrant submitted on Sunday to a district court in New Mexico, a state police investigator summarized conversations with the parties involved and claimed that Travis, Smith, and a different student known only as “Eli” were plotting to use the girl’s assistance to exact “revenge” on Peake.
Smith and the girl claimed that Peake and other spectators beat up Smith, Travis, and “Eli” at a UNM-NMSU football game in October at the Aggies’ stadium in Las Cruces.
UPDATE on tonight's game… pic.twitter.com/lfXsSlNNVq
— Lobo Basketball (@UNMLoboMBB) November 19, 2022
The three males ordered the 17-year-old girl, who was in communication with Peake, to text him to meet her on campus in Travis’s dorm room on Friday, according to the affidavit. Peake arrived at around three in the morning, and the three men approached him while he was strolling with the girl in front of a college housing complex.
The affidavit claims that surveillance video captured one of them aiming a gun at Peake’s head as the other two stood behind the NMSU player. One of those two used a bat to strike Peake in the right leg.
He claims that Smith and the girl informed the investigator that Travis held the gun while Smith claimed that “Eli” swung the bat. Peake began to flee before pulling a gun and shooting at Travis, according to Smith, who then fled the scene along with “Eli,” the girl, and Peake.
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According to the affidavit, Smith admitted to the investigator that while he was aware that Travis owned a gun, there had been no prior discussion regarding its potential use during the intended assault. Smith claimed that after running, he and “Eli” returned to the latter’s dorm room, changed, and then discarded the clothing they were wearing into a sewer.
In order to establish potential new charges in the case, state police stated on Sunday that they were collaborating with the district attorney.
The impact of this experience is life-changing for so many people and will go far beyond expressions of sadness and a sense of loss — and far beyond the Lobo community, according to a message released on Saturday by UNM President Garnett S. Stokes. I am so sincerely saddened by this tragedy on so many levels that I am at a loss for words.
“Any untimely passing is a tragedy, but it’s more tragic when it includes students and happens on a university campus,” NMSU Chancellor Dan Arvizu wrote in a letter made public on Sunday.
Both representatives mentioned that their respective campus communities have access to mental health assistance.
Peake played at Georgia and Austin Peay before transferring to NMSU prior to the 2021–22 season, according to his Aggies bio. In the first two games of this season, NMSU, he started.
The Aggies will go to Las Vegas this weekend to compete in a two-day tournament, the school announced on Monday.
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