Denver Broncos Player Shot To Death

Darrent Williams Killed In Drive-By Shooting Hours After Season-Ending Loss; Two Injured

(CBS/AP)  Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams was killed in a drive-by shooting early Monday after an argument at a nightclub,
his limousine sprayed with bullets in downtown Denver, according to police.

Team spokesman Jim Saccomano said police called him about 3 a.m. from the scene and told him three people had been shot, and the 24-year-old Williams, a former Oklahoma State star, had been killed. His death came hours after the Denver Broncos were eliminated from the playoff race.

A little after 2 a.m., a white Hummer limousine was fired on from a vehicle that pulled up along its side, police spokesman Sonny Jackson said. As many as a dozen bullet holes were visible on the driver's side of the vehicle. One window was blown out and four others had bullet holes.

Three people in the limo were hit and taken to St. Anthony
Central Hospital, Jackson said. Williams was pronounced dead.
The other man and woman who were shot were not identified.

Broncos coaches said Monday the incident may have begun at a bar where Williams and Broncos receiver Javon Walker got into an argument with some bar patrons, reported Reggie Rivers of KCNC-TV, the CBS affiliate in Denver.

The Broncos players left the bar and drove away in a limousine, and may have been followed by the gunmen, the coaches said.

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View photos of Darrent Williams

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Jackson said there was a dispute at a nightclub several blocks from the shooting where Williams and his group had attended a New Year's Eve party. He said the argument didn't specifically involve Williams, according to witnesses.

"Why this happened, we're not sure," Jackson said. "There was some confrontation between a group of people in the vehicle and a group at the nightclub."

Police were searching for a white Suburban or Tahoe they suspect
was involved. Jackson wouldn't identify any of the other passengers
nor would he confirm whether any other Broncos players were in the
vehicle at the time of the shooting, saying they were all
witnesses.

The club identified by police advertised a New Year's Eve event celebrating the birthday of Denver Nuggets star Kenyon Martin. Nuggets officials didn't immediately respond to questions about whether any of their players were involved.

The limo sat in a snowbank beside Speer Boulevard, a main street through downtown. Police and technicians worked amid snow and ice from recent storms, using small yellow plastic markers to indicate possible evidence.