Report: New Mexico State basketball coaches held onto gun used by player in fatal shooting

New information has come to light regarding the involvement of the New Mexico State men’s basketball coaching staff after Aggies forward Mike Peake shot and killed 19-year-old Brandon Travis on the University of New Mexico campus last month.

According to a report from KOAT-TV in Albuquerque, coaches left the UNM campus in a bus while investigators were still trying to interview them and locate the gun. This led police to believe the gun could be on the bus, and resulted in an officer speeding down the interstate with sirens on to pull them over.

Ultimately, the gun was not on the bus, but was found back at the team’s hotel in the possession of assistant coach Dominique Taylor. The coach initially told police he did not know where the gun was.

The shooting occurred early on the morning of Nov. 19, and resulted in the cancellation of a scheduled basketball game between the two schools.

According to the report, Peake skipped curfew around 3 a.m. to meet up with a 17-year-old girl he wanted to have sex with at a UNM dorm room. However, court records show that the girl conspired with three other male students to lure Peake there to assault him. Police said that Peake was involved in an altercation with the three men at the UNM-NMSU football game weeks earlier.

Once Peake arrived at the dorm, he was attacked with a baseball bat and shot in the leg as he attempted to run away. However, Peake also had a gun and shot Travis four times in self defense. The girl and one of the men, Jonathan Smith, have been charged in connection with beating Peake.

After the shooting, Peake was caught on video meeting three of his teammates — Issa Muhammad, Marcelus Avery and Anthony Roy —in a yellow Camaro. He is seen putting items into the trunk of the car before it drives off.

When police went looking to question the three players, they spoke with NMSU head coach Greg Heiar, who told investigators that he didn’t know where the gun was and he needed to check with athletic director Braun Cartwright to see if the players needed to get attorneys. Police also spoke with Taylor.

“I emphasized to coach Taylor how important it was to recover the gun and other items that were placed in the trunk,” state police agent David Esquibel wrote in his report. “I asked him to let me know if he finds out any information about the Camaro, the gun or other items and he said he would.”

However, when police again reached out to both Heiar and Taylor a couple of hours later, neither answered their phones. They were able to get in touch with Cartwright, who informed them the team was on the bus and headed back to Las Cruces.

Police eventually caught up with the bus at a rest stop, where they obtained Peake’s tablet from assistant coach Lorenzo Jenkins. The coach would still not allow the detective to speak to any of the players and said that “they told Cartwright they wanted an attorney.”