Report: Baylor Player Was Scared

Before he disappeared three weeks ago, Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy told a friend he was concerned about threats to his safety and fired guns with his roommate that the two had acquired for protection, according to newspaper reports.

Police have not found the Baylor forward, don't know how his vehicle ended up on the East Coast and have not named roommate Carlton Dotson as a suspect. A search warrant affidavit, citing a police informant, said Dotson had shot Dennehy in the head during an altercation.

Authorities said Tuesday they were still holding out hope that Dennehy was alive.

"There's still a glimmer of hope Mr. Dennehy will show up and say, 'Hey, this is where I've been the whole time,'" Waco police spokesman Steve Anderson said Tuesday.

Off a country road, Waco police have searched near a quarry area known for target practice for Dennehy's body. He was not found, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob McNamara. The FBI helped Waco police in the search of about 50 acres of private land north of town last week, Anderson said.

Dotson is now listed as one of numerous people police are looking into. He grew up not far from the Virginia Beach, Va. parking lot where Dennehy's SUV turned up last week.

Dotson, who played basketball at Baylor last season and had been staying at Dennehy's apartment, told a cousin he shot Dennehy as the two argued while firing guns, according to the warrant that cited an unidentified informant in Delaware.

But authorities simply called Dotson of Hurlock, Md., a "person of interest" and said Tuesday they have no single suspect.

"We have nothing at all right now to indicate (Dotson's) a suspect. He's just a citizen. It's a missing person's case," said Chris Flynn, captain of the Hurlock police department.

No charges have been filed, Anderson said. He said a Waco investigator interviewed Dotson on Friday, but he didn't know whether police had spoken to him since the search warrant affidavit was made public Monday.

Dotson has hired an attorney, he told The Washington Post on Tuesday.

"I want everyone associated with this to know my prayers are with them," Dotson told the newspaper, which did not cite his whereabouts.

At Hurlock, a rural community on Maryland's eastern shore, Dotson's aunt, Pat Waters, said Tuesday that he returned to town for the summer and was at her house Sunday, but they didn't discuss Dennehy. She didn't know where he was Tuesday.

Waters said Dotson is "probably scared. He's not a person that talks a lot."

Grady Irvin Jr., Dotson's lawyer, told the newspaper his next step is to "spend time with authorities to see if we can be of assistance." Irvin, a St. Petersburg, Fla., attorney who represents athletes, did not return a call early Wednesday from The Associated Press.

Daniel Okopnyi, who is listed in the affidavit as Dennehy's friend, told the Post that the player said in a June 14 telephone conversation that "someone is out to get me." But Okopnyi said the person who had allegedly threatened Dennehy wasn't Dotson.

"Patrick told me that he and Dotson got the guns to keep themselves safe," Okopnyi, who lives in the Fort Worth area, told the newspaper.

Dennehy's family reported the 6-foot-10 junior missing June 19, about a week after he was last seen. His sport utility vehicle was found last week.

The search warrant sought in the affidavit was for Dennehy's room and the contents of his computer. It doesn't say if anyone else was present when Dennehy and Dotson allegedly were firing guns; according to the affidavit, Dotson said he got rid of the guns while driving home to Maryland.

A man who owns a Waco area farm searched by police last week told The Dallas Morning News for a story in Wednesday's editions that Dennehy and Dotson were seen shooting guns together there on June 10, two days before Dennehy disappeared.

The property owner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the two often visited the farm 21 miles northeast of Waco in Hill County for sport shooting, fishing and other recreation. The property owner's wife told the newspaper she saw Dennehy and Dotson in Dennehy's vehicle in Waco on June 12.

The two had met the property owner and his wife in March while responding to an advertisement for pit bulls.

His mother, Valorie Brabazon, told "Good Morning America" from her Carson City, Nev., home Tuesday that she remains hopeful.

"Our son is still alive, and we're keeping a positive attitude about it and keeping our hopes up. And we know God is with him."

For Baylor University, the mystery is a potential public relations nightmare for recruiting students. The school's president is facing criticism from the missing student's parents that the school reacted too slowly.

The president, Robert Sloan, told the CBS News Early Show "our coaches really keep good track of the players, and really seldom more than a day or two would go by that our coaches would not hear from a player."

When the coaches lost contact with Dennehy, Sloan said, "they began looking for him and they followed the normal process." Given the need to balance safety with privacy concerns, Sloan said the response was "appropriate," although he understood the parents' concerns.

"We're not really worried about our image right now," he said.