Three Vanderbilt football players involved in shooting over stolen phone in Target parking lot

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 2:47 p.m. ET

Sports Illustrated, Khadrice Rollins/Sports Illustrated

Two Vanderbilt football were shot and a third was present during an altercation over a stolen cell phone Monday night in Nashville, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Both players' gunshot wounds are noncritical, and detectives are still working to identify and arrest the suspects, according a police statement obtained by the Associated Press.

Sophomore wide receiver Donaven Tennyson had his phone stolen in a Chili's parking lot Monday at 5 p.m. when meeting with a potential buyer he agreed to meet with online, police said.

Tennyson then saw his phone for sale on the same site he arranged to sell it on, and created a fake account to set up a meeting to purchase the phone back from the thief. He agreed to meet in a Target parking lot and brought teammates O'Montae Daley and Frank Coppet to help him retrieve the phone, police said.

According to the AP, one of the players said to police that they brought a pellet gun with them "to help get the phone back," and upon arriving, Coppet got out of Daley's Toyota with the pellet pistol in his hand. Police said a man in the Buick that pulled up next to them got out and fired on the players with an actual pistol and a second man inside the Buick began firing a shotgun at them.

Police added that one man got away in the Buick and the other got away in the Toyota.

"Our foremost concern is the well-being of our students, but it appears their injuries are not life-threatening," Vanderbilt said in a statement. "The university is monitoring the situation and will determine if any action on the part of the university is appropriate."

Last season, Tennyson made the SEC Academic Honor Roll while appearing in eight games for the Commodores. Coppet is a redshirt freshman, and Daley, who enrolled early, is a member of Vanderbilt's 2017 signing class.

in this topic

SEC

Vanderbilt Commodores