A college football player from Brooklyn was shot to death at a party on a North Carolina college campus, police said.
Winston-Salem officers responded to a call from Wake Forest University for assistance after a report of a gunshot on campus, police said Saturday.
Najee Ali Baker, 21, a walk-on at Winston-Salem State University was found with a gunshot wound and taken to a local hospital, where he died.
Wake Forest and Winston-Salem State are 9 miles apart.
Wake Forest President Nathan Hatch said in an email that Baker was shot during a fight at a party in The Barn, which Wake Forest officials describe as a student-centered social space that hosts concerts, speakers and various celebrations, according to The Winston-Salem Journal.
Baker sat out the 2017 season after transferring from Dean College in Franklin, Massachusetts. The school's athletic website said Baker was a 6-foot, 1-inch 240-pound linebacker from Brooklyn.
Winston-Salem State Coach Kienus Boulware told the newspaper he received a phone call early Saturday.
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"I was shocked when I got the call and as a coach you never want to get this kind of call," Boulware said, adding that he had to notify Baker's father.
"I spoke with Najee's father and it's a tough call to make to let him know that his son won't be coming home," Boulware said. "We are all really shocked by this because he was a quiet guy and a great teammate."
The coach said Baker would have been a contributor on the defensive line in the 2018 season, which would have been the first of his three years of eligibility at Winston-Salem State, a historically black university in the central part of the state.
Police say the shooting appears to be an isolated incident. No arrests have been made so far. Winston-Salem police and officers from the two schools are investigating.
