Detroit News: WSU football player fatally shot outside downtown Detroit club

Christine Ferretti and Santiago Esparza / / The Detroit News

May 7, 2011

Detroit — Relatives of a Wayne State University football player, shot and killed outside a Detroit nightclub this week, are trying to make sense of his "senseless" death, one of a spate of shootings in the city over the past two days.

Wayne State Police said 20-year-old cornerback Cortez Smith was outside a downtown club near Shelby and Larned with a couple of teammates when a dispute broke out with a group of people around 11:25 p.m. Thursday. Police say someone opened fire, striking Smith in the chest and head and another man in the leg.

"It was very senseless how all of this came down," said Smith's mother, Beverly Smith, who contends her son was attempting to aid a teammate who had been punched.
The shooting is one of at least three in the past two days in parts of the city not normally associated with such violence.

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110507/METRO/105070346/WSU-football-player-fatally-shot-outside-downtown-Detroit-club#ixzz1Lky1xjra