University of Memphis football players visited a memorial yesterday where teammate Taylor Bradford's car had hit a tree after he was shot Sunday evening. Bradford, a defensive lineman, was pronounced dead in a hospital.
(mike brown/the commercial appeal via ap)
Slaying halts classes at Memphis college
University of Memphis football players visited a memorial yesterday where teammate Taylor Bradford's car had hit a tree after he was shot Sunday evening. Bradford, a defensive lineman, was pronounced dead in a hospital.
(mike brown/the commercial appeal via ap)
MEMPHIS - Classes at the University of Memphis were canceled yesterday after a football player was fatally shot on campus, in what school officials said was a targeted attack but city police later said could have been random.
By yesterday evening, police had not identified any suspects in the slaying of Taylor Bradford, who was shot about 9:45 p.m. Sunday, apparently near a university housing complex.
After the shooting, the 21-year-old junior crashed a car into a tree. Police said they had not determined whether he was shot before or after he started driving the car.
Police were responding to the car crash when Bradford was found slumped over in the vehicle on a campus street about 200 yards from his apartment complex.
"It wasn't until the paramedics got there that they determined there was a possible gunshot wound," said Bruce Harber, director of university police. He was apparently shot once, police said, although an autopsy was pending.
University president Shirley Raines said authorities quickly determined Bradford's killers were not a threat to other students.
In an e-mail alert to faculty, students, and staff members at 3:40 a.m. yesterday, the university said "the initial investigation indicates this was an act directed specifically toward the victim and was not a random act of violence."
The university, which is primarily a commuter campus, still decided to cancel classes.
City police expressed less certainty that Bradford had been specifically targeted.
The city police director, Larry Godwin, said a motive for the shooting had not been determined and police had no suspects identified. Godwin said witnesses saw two unidentified men running from the area where investigators believe the shooting occurred and other witnesses reported hearing gunfire.
Godwin said investigators had no evidence that Bradford was involved in any illegal activity.
"Everything I've heard about him . . . he was just a good kid," Godwin said.
Bradford, a 5-foot-11, 300-pound defensive lineman from Nashville, was a junior who transferred to Memphis last year after two seasons at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.
The Memphis Tigers host Marshall University tonight, and a moment of silence was planned before the game.
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