Update, 5/28: Dejean-Jones reportedly broke into an apartment unit that was on the floor below where he intended to be:
Management at Camden Belmont sent an email to residents that said Dejean-Jones had been trying to get into the apartment of an “estranged acquaintance” and “inadvertently broke into the wrong apartment.”
ESPN reported that the acquaintance was the mother of Dejean-Jones’ child.
Nichols, the agent, told CNN in a statement that the NBA player was in Dallas to visit his girlfriend for his daughter’s first birthday. He said Dejean-Jones was visiting her new apartment for the first time and, when he came back to the apartment later that night, he went to the unit directly below hers.
Original post: NBA rookie and former Cyclone Bryce Dejean-Jones has died at the age of 23 from a gunshot wound to the abdomen he suffered overnight. According to a police report, he was shot during an alleged apartment break-in in Dallas, Texas:
#BREAKING NBA player @B2nyce was shot breaking into an apartment in Dallas, per @DallasPD. https://t.co/yxvPFZTKyj pic.twitter.com/AI7Ok6WewE
— Sarah Mervosh (@smervosh) May 28, 2016
The Ames Tribune had initially reported that it received confirmation from the Dallas County coroner’s office that Dejean-Jones had died, with few other details.
Dejean-Jones’ agent, Scott Nichols, confirmed the gunshot wound as the cause of death.
A talented but troubled athlete, Dejean-Jones spent his first college season at USC and next two at UNLV before joining Fred Hoiberg’s transfer-heavy roster at Iowa State to finish out his college career over the 2014-15 season.
For the Cyclones, Dejean-Jones averaged 10.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.1 steals in 33 games. After he got charges dropped for allegedly “hosting a drug house” when police responding to a nuisance complaint found a trifling amount of weed, Dejean-Jones went on to help lead the Cyclones to their second-straight Big 12 tournament championship. But his season ended in disappointment in the Cyclones’ shocking loss to UAB in the first round of the NCAA tournament, after Hoiberg benched him for the second half for reasons he wouldn’t disclose.
After leaving ISU, Dejean-Jones joined the New Orleans Pelicans’ NBA training camp but was waived before the season began and ended up playing nine games for the D-League’s Idaho Stampede, where he averaged 19.2 points per game. The Pelicans then signed Dejean-Jones to an NBA contract, but his rookie season ended after 14 games (5.6 ppg) because of a wrist fracture he suffered in February.
