The Milwaukee gas station where Lavelle Felton was shot in the head early Wednesday morning.
/ AP photo
MILWAUKEE (AP) — European league basketball player Lavelle Felton has died from a gunshot wound he suffered earlier this week while leaving a Milwaukee gas station, police said Friday.
The 29-year-old died at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital near Milwaukee, police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said in an e-mailed statement.
Felton was shot in the head while driving away from a gas station early Wednesday morning. Schwartz's statement didn't say whether any arrests had been made.
The Milwaukee native played for Paderborn last season in Germany's top league, Bundesliga. He was a guard and played in 34 games, averaging 10.4 points and 2.4 assists per game as he helped the club reach the Bundesliga playoffs.
He also played basketball at Madison High School in Wisconsin, then played at Louisiana Tech, where he averaged 13.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game in 2002-03. He then spent two years with the Turkish club Buyuk Kolej before moving on to Greece and France.
Former Wisconsin-Milwaukee basketball standout Avery Smith described Felton as a good friend and someone he's known since they were young. He said Thursday that Felton loved his girlfriend, with whom he has two children, and was a role model for youngsters.
Felton's Los Angeles-based agent, Mark Mayemura, said Thursday he spoke to his client earlier in the week because he was negotiating with teams for next season. He had offers on the table and Felton was supposed to give Mayemura an answer on Wednesday.
Mayemura said he was shocked and saddened when he heard about the shooting.
There were numerous comments on Felton's Facebook page. One was from high school friend James Scott, 28, who now lives in Atlanta. He said he was distraught when he heard about the shooting.
"He was a humble person," he said Thursday in a phone interview. "He never got into trouble."
Scott said Felton always wanted to play basketball professionally and worked hard to do it.
"He played ball 24-7," he said. "He dribbled the ball everywhere he went ... that's all he thought about was basketball."
