AUGUSTA, Ga. — A former star basketball player for Augusta University was shot and killed the day after Christmas in Washington, DC.
Tyvez Monroe was outside a DC-area train station when he was shot and killed on Dec. 26, WJBF-TV reports.
According to WRC-TV, Monroe was sitting at a bus stop outside the metro station when Deonte Spicer approached Monroe around 4:30 a.m. After exchanging fist bumps and talking for a few minutes, Spicer is alleged to have pulled out an AR-15 and shot Monroe, the TV station reported.
Spicer then got on a bus a block away.
Police eventually arrested Spicer and charged him with first-degree murder, WJBF reported.
Monroe’s grandfather, Rickey Cruse, was at a DC-area vigil for his grandson over the weekend where he remembered him as always being the peacekeeper.
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“Never was a confrontation,” Cruse told WRC. “Never got in no fights. Nothing like that. He always tried to diffuse something if it happened.”
“He was liked by a lot of people, you know,” his father, Darryl Monroe, said at the vigil. “He was a good-hearted guy. He was into sports, basketball, community.”
Monroe scored more than 1,000 points for the Augusta University Jaguars before graduating in 2019, WJBF reported.
His former coach, Dip Metress, posted on X, saying Monroe was, “One of the most competitive players I’ve ever coached, gone far too soon.”
Police have not released a motive for the shooting, but court documents obtained by WRC show bizarre behavior by Spicer. Police told the TV station that they were looking into his mental status.
A funeral service will be held for Monroe at Shiloh Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia on Jan. 13, at 10 a.m.
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