Former Michigan State basketball star and first-round NBA pick Adrian Payne was fatally shot Monday morning.
He was 31.
A spokeswoman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to the Daily News that police responded to an Orange County townhouse at approximately 1:30 a.m. on Monday following the shooting call.
Payne, who played all four seasons at MSU before being drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in the 2014 NBA Draft, was taken to hospital and pronounced dead.
Lawrence Dority, 29, remained at the scene and was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. His connection to Payne is unclear.
According to the Orange County Clerk of Courts, Dority is in trouble with at least a 2011 law, mostly for civil traffic violations such as speeding and driving with tinted windows.
Payne was named to the Second Team All-Big Ten at Michigan State as both a junior and a senior before being drafted by the Hawks. He bounced around the NBA to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic until he was released in 2018 after an ESPN report revealed that he was accused of raping a freshman student at Michigan State in 2010. was alleged.
The forward moved to Europe to play, with the club winning the Greek League Basketball Championship in 2018 and the Greek Basketball Cup with Panathinaikos in 2019. He last played for Juventus Utena in Lithuania during the 2021–22 season.
He also made headlines for befriending 8-year-old Lacey Holsworth during a battle with cancer at Michigan State, bringing her to sports, and meeting her during chemotherapy treatment.
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