Former Michigan State basketball star and first-round NBA pick Adreian Payne was fatally shot early Monday morning in Florida.
He was 31.
Police responded to a townhouse in Orlando around 1:30 a.m. Monday after calls about shots fired, a spokesperson for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to the Daily News.
Payne, who played all four seasons at MSU before being drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in the 2014 NBA draft, was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead.
Lawrence Dority, 29, stayed at the scene and was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. His connection to Payne is unclear.
Dority has been in trouble with the law dating back to at least 2011, mostly for civil traffic infractions like speeding and driving with tinted windows, according to the Orange County Clerk of Courts.
Payne was named to the second-team All-Big Ten as both a junior and senior at Michigan State 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 had been accused of raping a female student following her freshman orientation at Michigan State in 2010.
The forward moved to Europe to play, winning the club the Greek League Basketball championship in 2018 and the Greek Basketball Cup in 2019 with Panathinaikos. He last played for Juventus Utena in Lithuania during the 2021-22 season.
He also made headlines at Michigan State for befriending 8-year-old Lacey Holsworth during her fight with cancer, bringing her to games and visiting her during chemotherapy treatments.
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