We know one thing for sure. A man named Brandon Roy was shot outside Los Angeles over the weekend. On Tuesday, reports surfaced that the man was in fact former Portland Trail Blazers guard and NBA All-Star Brandon Roy, now a high school coach at Nathan Hale in Seattle.
But now, some of Roy’s players at Nathan Hale are disputing those reports. From the Seattle Times:
“The allegations are false. Coach Brandon Roy is fine,” senior guard Kateel Barnett wrote in an email to The Seattle Times Wednesday afternoon.
When asked in a follow up email whether he had spoken to Roy since Saturday, Barnett wrote, “Yes. He’s informed me he’s completely fine.”
Two other players, P.J. Fuller and MarJon Beauchamp, tweeted on Tuesday that the reports had the story wrong, although those tweets have since been deleted. Stefanie Loh of the Seattle Times managed to grab a screenshot of Beauchamp’s tweet while it was still up:
MarJon Beauchamp is the one of 3 Nathan Hale players who have publicly disputed Brandon Roy shooting reports. But he deleted this tweet Wed. pic.twitter.com/q1GKHqznXq
— Stefanie Loh ｜ 卢敏仪 (@StefanieLoh) May 3, 2017
Meanwhile, Roy has not made a statement either way to confirm or deny the reports. As recently as Wednesday evening, Loh reported no official sources from Nathan Hale or elsewhere confirmed the reports either:
Update: Far as we know, no one 'official' has confirmed that the shot Brandon Roy IS the NATHAN HALE Brandon Roy. Hale players say he's fine https://t.co/NmKeQKIlmj
— Stefanie Loh ｜ 卢敏仪 (@StefanieLoh) May 3, 2017
Loh’s story on the disputed reports sheds some light on how the confusion could have started if the former NBA All-Star Roy is not the same person as the Roy who was shot:
Sgt. Rick Mejia of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office confirmed Wednesday morning that a man named Brandon Roy was shot in an incident that occurred on the 2000 block of Nestor Ave. in Compton, and said it “appears” that the Roy who was shot is the NBA All-Star, but added, “there’s no way we can confirm that because we don’t ask those questions.”
Mejia said Roy was one of four victims who were injured by gunfire from two men.
“Mr. Roy and three other black males were standing there when two male blacks shot in their direction, striking all four,” Mejia said. “None were life-threatening injuries. I know all four were shot and transported to a local hospital.”
So this is now officially a wacky story. Whether Roy was the victim of a shooting or just some bad journalism, hopefully he’s doing okay.
