TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Hundreds gathered in Kansas to remember a Washburn University football player who was killed in a shooting that also wounded a friend who had been drafted hours earlier by the New York Giants.
The Kansas City Star reports that coach Craig Schurig said at Tuesdays vigil for 23-year-old Dwane Simmons that the football field was his piece of heaven. The coach compared Simmons, a junior from Lees Summit, Missouri, to the candles carried by mourners, saying he shined the light on everybody. The university plans to create a scholarship in Simmons name.
The shooting early Sunday outside an off-campus party also injured cornerback Corey Ballentine, whom the Giants drafted Saturday in the sixth round. The university says Ballentine is expected to make a full recovery. No one has been arrested.
