LAS CRUCES, N.M. (KTSM) – Three New Mexico State basketball players assisted Aggies forward Mike Peake after a deadly shooting in Albuquerque on Nov. 19 and NMSU assistant coach Dominique Taylor eventually turned the gun used by Peake in the incident over to law enforcement, according to a New Mexico State Police report received by KTSM on Tuesday.
The report was initially obtained and presented to the public by KOAT and the Albuquerque Journal on Monday. KTSM received the documents from its NBC affiliate in Albuquerque, KOB, which had obtained them through an open records request on Tuesday.
According to the New Mexico Supplemental Report, Mike Peake can be seen on surveillance video after the incident putting items into the trunk of a yellow Camaro, where he met three of his teammates – Issa Muhammad, Marchelus “Chi Chi” Avery and Anthony Roy. The yellow Camaro then drives away.
It is not clear in the report who may have been driving the car; head coach Greg Heiar told police he did not know of any of his players, or their friends, that drove a vehicle matching that description.
New Mexico State also announced that it will hire a third-party, external investigator to look at the incident and how the aftermath was handled by the university.
During the investigation, police learned that Peake had placed the gun and his tablet inside the trunk of the vehicle. While speaking with police, Heiar said he’d only known Peake for a few months and that Taylor knew him better.
Police asked Heiar and Taylor if they could speak with the three players who arrived to assist Peake, according to the report.
“I asked him if he could bring them down so I could speak with them, and he told me he needed to check with his AD to see if they needed to get them attorney’s first and he would let me know…Coach Heiar told me he would talk to his team to try and find out as much information as possible and pass it on to me,” the officer wrote in the report.
While police were at NMSU’s hotel investigating the incident, officers observed players and coaches getting on the bus to return to Las Cruces. Police reached back out to both Heiar and Taylor to check on where the gun and the tablet were and to see if they could speak to the players, but the repeated calls went to voicemail.
Police then learned that the bus was on its way back to Las Cruces and they hopped on I-25 to try to catch up with it. New Mexico State University Police and NMSU Assistant Athletic Director Braun Cartwright were also in contact with police at that time. NMSU police said the gun was back at the hotel in Albuquerque; Cartwright said he’d told the bus to stop at a rest stop on I-25.
Once there, police retrieved Peake’s tablet from the team bus. His phone was later found in the possession of an NMSU administrator in Las Cruces. They were also informed by team personnel that Avery, Muhammad and Roy had asked for attorneys and did not speak to the police.
12 hours after the shooting took place, the gun was located at the DoubleTree Hotel in Albuquerque where NMSU was staying, as assistant coach Taylor handed the gun – a Smith & Wesson SD40 VE – over to police wrapped in a towel on the third floor of the hotel.
According to the police report, the three players told head coach Greg Heiar the gun was located in a room on the second floor of the hotel; Heiar then called Taylor and directed him to retrieve it and hand it over to police.
“Coach Taylor explained that Issa, Marcelus, and Anthony told Coach Heiar where the firearm was at. Coach Heiar then called Coach Taylor and told him where the firearm was at and to go get it. I had Coach Taylor show me which room he got the firearm from,” the report states.
As KTSM previously reported, Peake left his hotel room after 3 a.m. to meet a 17-year-old UNM student with the understanding the pair would have sex. The girl allegedly worked with three other UNM students, including Brandon Travis and Jonathan Smith, to ambush Peake in retaliation for a fight during the Oct. 15 UNM-NMSU football game in Las Cruces.
Travis allegedly pulled out a gun on Peake, and the pair exchanged gunfire. As a result of the shooting, Travis was declared dead at the scene, and Peake was hospitalized with gunshot wounds to his leg. According to the report received by KTSM on Tuesday, Travis was shot four times – twice in the chest, once in the arm and once in the scrotum. He died from his injuries on the scene.
Smith and the 17-year-old girl have both been charged with multiple crimes, including Aggravated Battery and Conspiracy. As of Tuesday afternoon, they are the only people to be charged with any crimes, but the investigation is still ongoing according to NMSP.
According to the report, Taylor told police that the coaches did rounds at midnight to check if the players were in their rooms, then took shifts in the lobby to ensure they hadn’t left the hotel. Taylor said his turn in the lobby was from 12:45 a.m. to 2:20 a.m. and around 1:15 a.m. three players, including Peake, came into the hotel.
Taylor told police he pointed toward the elevator but didn’t speak with them, per the report. The other two players that walked in with Peake at that time were Xavier Pinson and Deuce Benjamin. That pair has not been linked to anything else in the case at any point.
Peake was suspended indefinitely from the NMSU basketball team on Monday afternoon after being released from the hospital.
The initial reports of these new developments surfaced on Monday night, as New Mexico State was playing Simon Fraser at the Pan American Center. Heiar would not on the report and neither would athletic director Mario Moccia after the game.
However, both men said the Aggies would be leaving for a three-game road trip on Tuesday. The Aggies are slated to play Santa Clara at 8 p.m. on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, New Mexico State officials confirmed to KTSM that Anthony Roy, one of the four men named in the police report released by KOAT and the Journal, had not traveled to California with the team, due to what the school called, “personal reasons.”
NMSU said that Heiar, Taylor, Avery and Muhammad all had traveled with the team. NMSU will play Santa Clara on Wednesday, travel to Pittsburgh to play Duquesne on Sunday, then return to California to play Saint Mary’s next Wednesday, Dec. 14. The team will not be returning to Las Cruces during that time frame.
The school also announced on Tuesday that it would contract with an external, third-party investigator to review the events surrounding the shooting. Once the third-party review is completed, the university will then publicly release an executive summary of the report.
“We will be incredibly transparent during this process,” said NMSU Chancellor Dan Arvizu. “We owe that to our community and to everyone associated with our university. The firm selected will be encouraged to review any public documents regarding this case and be fully empowered to speak with any NMSU employees, students or other individuals necessary to ensure we fully understand the facts.”
Arvizu said the review would also examine the university’s response in the days following the shooting.
“If there is anything we should have done differently, this report will let us know. In the last day, we have received a number of new questions regarding this case. Unfortunately, some of what’s been reported in the media is information NMSU has not been provided,” Arvizu said. “To be fair to all involved, it’s important to have a more detailed understanding of what has occurred.”
The university will release the name of the selected firm once details of that contract are finalized.