Temple/Cheyney basketball player dies in Old City shooting
Sad story– promising young athlete from my alma mater Simon Gratz High dies. Other athletes who attended Gratz are boxers Ivan Robinson and Meldrick Taylor, and basketball players Aaron McKie of the Philadelphia 76ers and Rasheeed Wallace of the Detroit Pistons, 2004 NBA champs.
Cheyney basketball player dies in Old City shooting
By Thomas J. Gibbons Jr. and Mike Jensen
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
A Cheyney University basketball player was fatally shot early this morning in Old City, officials said.
The victim was identified by police as Micheal Blackshear, 21, of the 1400 block of North 18th Street in North Philadelphia.
Police responding at 2:24 a.m. to a report of gunshots at 22 Front St., just south of Market Street, were told that someone had gotten shot. They were told that a man had been shot there and was being taken in a white Jeep to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
Police raced to the hospital and spotted a white Jeep pulling up with the rear window shot out and several bullet holes in the front windshield.
Blackshear was pronounced dead at the hospital at 2:42 a.m. of a gunshot wound to the back of the head.
Police said that when they approached the Jeep, a man jumped out and fled on foot. He was captured after a short foot chase and was identified as Vincent J. Turner, 21, of North Philadelphia, a cousin of Blackshear.
Turner was brought to the Homicide Unit for questioning. Police impounded the Jeep. Investigators said Blackshear was shot by an unknown assailant who then fled in a dark-colored sedan.
Blackshear did not play last semester at Cheyney but was expected to play this fall. He was a 6-5 forward. He had been suspended from Temple University’s basketball team last October, just days before the start of Temple’s pre-season practice. He transferred to Cheyney in January.
Blackshear played at Temple in the 2003-2004 season, averaging 2.3 points and 5.9 rebounds a game off the bench.
He was a former all-city basketball player at Simon Gratz High School, where he averaged 10.5 points and 13.3 rebounds a game.