NBA player's shooting death may have been simple mistake
DALLAS - The shooting death of an NBA player in Dallas has those who knew him best struggling to make sense of it.
New Orleans Pelican player Bryce Dejean-Jones, 23, died after breaking into a Dallas apartment and being shot.
Many of the people who live at the Camden Belmont apartments had no idea what had happened overnight until they received an email from the apartment complex management saying that a man had broken into an apartment by mistake, reports CBS Dallas.
A wrist injury ended Bryce Dejean-Jones' rookie season early with the New Orleans Pelicans. But as he made his way to Dallas for his baby daughter's first birthday, his agent tells us his future was looking bright.
A wrist injury ended Bryce Dejean-Jones' rookie season early with the New Orleans Pelicans. According to his agent Scott Nichols, Dejean-Jones was in Dallas for his baby daughter's first birthday.
"He was going... you know it's a long Memorial Day weekend. He was going to go to her birthday, and then he was coming back literally on Monday, and he just finished rehabbing his wrist, and he was going to start back basketball training on Tuesday," said Nichols.
Nichols said this was Dejean-Jones' first trip to see his girlfriend's new Dallas apartment, and after a brief argument he returned to the wrong floor of the building.
"I don't know exactly what was said. It could have been just like a normal argument of any couple, but I think maybe that was the reason why he was walking around. Cool some air off. She went in the apartment first, and he was looking... I don't think he was breaking in as far as... I think he was frustrated he couldn't get in the apartment. He didn't have the keys," said Nichols.
Police say the man who lives in the third floor apartment called out to the man breaking in, but when he didn't hear an answer, he fired his gun.
"He didn't know his way around. Literally the apartment he went to was the one right under her, and he was banging, he knocked on the door, and then he started banging on the door thinking maybe she locked him out," said Nichols.
Dallas Police said there's nothing to indicate Dejean-Jones was armed or knew the man who shot him. That's why his agent believes this was simply a case of confusing which apartment was his girlfriend's and ending up at the wrong place at the wrong time.