NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A basketball player at Fisk University in Tennessee died after being shot on Sunday as he and two friends were returning from an event involving the school’s gymnastics team, authorities said.
Andre Bell, 20, of Jackson, Tennessee, died on Monday after he was rushed to an area hospital after suffering a gunshot wound to the head, university officials confirmed.
Bell, a sophomore small forward who had played in two of Fisk’s three basketball games this season, was shot while driving north on Interstate 65 at the I-40 interchange, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.
Bell was driving his white Nissan Sentra with two friends as passengers on Sunday at about 8 p.m. CT when a dark sedan approached his vehicle in the left lane.
The two passengers said they were distracted by their cellphones when they heard multiple gunshots and realized that Bell had been wounded, police said.
Bell’s vehicle spun and crashed into a red pickup truck while the dark sedan continued on the interstate, police said. The two passengers were not injured.
Police have not yet identified a motive in the shooting.
Bell and the two passengers were returning to campus after attending an event at the fairgrounds in Nashville, police said.
“He was just coming back from helping another school team at their event,” Bradley Lewis, Bell’s father, told WSMV. “Andre was always willing to help any and everybody else, and we’re just asking for that in return right now.”
“We are hurting immensely,” Amber Lewis, the player’s mother, said in a statement. “Words cannot describe the pain we are feeling. But despite how indescribable it is, we remain encouraged by the deep impact (Bell) made on this world during his time on this earth.
“His impact is evident in the way this community, his teammates, and his classmates have responded and rallied around us. It gives me peace, comfort, and hope.”
Bell came off the bench on Saturday to score two points in Fisk’s 97-67 home victory against Rust College of Mississippi. He connected for seven points in the team’s season-opening 132-80 victory against UHSP, a school based in St. Louis.
Fisk head coach Jeremiah Crutcher said in a statement that Bell “will be truly missed.”
“Today, we lost a leader on and off the basketball court,” Crutcher said. “We now have a deep absence in our program, but more importantly, we have a deep pain in our hearts.”
Fisk is an NAIA school located in Nashville.
An investigation is ongoing, police said.