A heated pick-up basketball game on West Campus Saturday afternoon erupted into an exchange of gunfire between two opposing team members, leaving one man wounded and the Duke University Police Department in pursuit of three suspects.
Toby Madlock, of Durham, suffered one gunshot wound to the hand and one to the leg at the Whitford Drive basketball courts near the R. David Thomas Center. Madlock, who is in his mid 20s, was rushed to the Duke Hospital emergency room after the 4:30 p.m. shooting. He was treated and released Sunday morning.
DUPD issued two arrest warrants Tuesday in connection with the Saturday shooting, said Maj. Robert Dean, who is heading the investigation. Jonathan G. Patton, 19, of 2105 Bogarde Street in Durham, is charged with assault with a deadly weapon, with the intent to kill and inflicting serious bodily injury; Brian Keith Liles, 22, of 1500 Mayruth Drive in Durham, is charged with aiding and abetting. DUPD is still seeking a third suspect whose alias is "Squirrel."
Dean said no University students were involved in the shooting, which he called "a basketball game that got out of hand." Both Patton and Liles, he noted, were enrolled at North Carolina Central University in 1996. The NCCU registrar's office would not release information on their current academic status.
Intense verbal sparring between players on both sides-who had never met prior to their game Saturday-led to a fight between Patton and Madlock, said James Hester, Madlock's cousin and teammate. After the two brawlers were separated and had left the court, Hester alleged that Patton produced a gun and opened fire, hitting Madlock twice. Hester said he then immediately retrieved his own gun and returned Patton's fire but did not hit him. Following the trade of gunfire, Hester and the wounded Madlock retreated on foot.
"We were playing and everybody had their words," Hester said. "They got mad because we started winning-I guess they just couldn't take the defeat. We play ball and talk back and forth; it's all in the game. I play out there just about every Sunday and it has never come to that. It surprised me."
Dean said DUPD recovered at least eight bullet casings from the scene, including the nine millimeter bullets believed to be fired by Patton and the .380-caliber bullets allegedly fired by Hester.
Hester was arrested Sunday on charges of possessing a weapon on campus and discharging a firearm inside the city limits, Dean said, and was released on $500 bond. Hester said his own arrest leaves him with a bitter taste in his mouth.
"I felt like I was doing what I thought was right-I think the police are doing me wrong for defending myself," said Hester, who faces a June 12 trial date. "All I was trying to do was protect myself. That's what I have a pistol for. If I can avoid [using] it, I'll avoid it, but this was something I couldn't avoid."
John Potter, a student at Durham Technical Community College who played on Patton's team that afternoon, left about a half-hour before the shooting but said he was not surprised to learn how the day's events unfolded. The mounting tension he observed, which included a physical altercation at one point, triggered the eventual gun battle.
"I figured something like that [might happen]-it was really intense," Potter said. "They were talking crap the whole game about fouls and stuff, egging each other on. Some of those guys take it seriously, very seriously. You can see some crazy stuff here on the weekend... [though] I don't think I've ever heard about someone getting shot out here."
Potter, who plays on the Whitford Drive courts about three times a week, said he did not see any security officers in the area on Saturday. Lt. J.F. Fleming said, however, that DUPD officers do patrol the Whitford Drive courts by car and by bicycle, but not by foot.
As a result of the Saturday shooting, the Whitford Drive courts have been chained up and ordered closed for the remainder of the summer, said Bill Harvey, director of facilities scheduling.
"I can see the reasoning for closing the court," Harvey said, noting that, unlike other campus courts, the Whitford Drive courts have neither stationed officers nor installed card readers. "These kinds of things that happen-you hope that it's one incident, but who knows? The shooting was bad, of course, but God forbid, what if it was a student who got hurt or a little kid walking by?"
Hester said Madlock is "doing all right now," while DUPD continues to hunt for the suspects. Police believe Patton and Liles-whose last known addresses are in Durham-and the third suspect fled in a tan or brown Toyota Camry with Virginia tags.
"Patton and Liles could be out-of-town students-we're not certain," Dean said. "We don't know where [they are] at right now. We are trying to locate [them] wherever [they] may be. We try to cover as much territory as we can."
Anybody with information about the shooting should call either Sgt. Paul Taylor of DUPD at 684-2444 or Durham Crime Stoppers at 683-1200.
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