Drake basketball player not yet with team after being charged for accidental shooting at house party

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A Drake University men’s basketball player charged in an accidental shooting of another student is not yet back with the team, his coach confirmed Wednesday.

Tremell Murphy, a senior who is still enrolled at the university, pleaded guilty at the end of last month to a making a false report to a public entity and discharging a firearm within city limits, court records show.

Darian DeVries, entering his second season as Drake’s head coach, could not offer a timeline on when Murphy, 22, would return. The transfer forward started 32 games for Drake last season, averaging about 10 points and six rebounds a game.

“He is currently enrolled in classes and he is going through basically the process here at the university, with the dean of students, as he continues to work toward his status in regard to the team,” DeVries said Wednesday at the team’s media day.

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Drake’s Tremell Murphy drives to the basket during a game against Buena Vista at the Knapp center Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018. (Photo: Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register)

He said Murphy is not participating in any team activities.

The 6-foot-6 forward was fined, given a suspended 30-day jail sentence and placed on probation after a Drake student was accidentally shot in the head during an August party at Murphy’s home. Murphy will only have to serve jail time if he violates probation, according to his lawyer, Van M. Plumb.

“Of important note is that the investigation found that the shooting was accidental and Mr. Murphy retained counsel within 12 hours to correct his original statement, taking full responsibility for what happened,” Plumb said in an email to the Register. “The city code in which he plead guilty to does not differentiate between an accidental discharge or an intentional one, both are illegal.”

The charges for Murphy stem from a report at about 11 p.m. Aug. 31 in the 1100 block of 27th Street. Des Moines police arrived at a house party and found a 19-year-old man with a towel being compressed on his head, lying near a small pool of blood, according to an incident report.

Police were told the victim, a student at Drake, had fallen, but evidence pointed to a gun being fired in one room and that bullet traveling through a wall to hit the student, who was in another room. Murphy was charged two weeks later.

“Mr. Murphy had a valid permit to carry at the time, but as a result of this accident, voluntarily gave up his firearm as — despite what he thought was the careful handling of such — he still seriously hurt a fellow student,” Plumb said. “Mr. Murphy’s main goal in this whole process was to ensure … the victim was not put under any further stress.”

Plumb said Murphy is taking part in the Restorative Justice Program offered by Drake as a way to help kids in the city. He said Murphy’s current concerns are to “help others and, more importantly, that the victim is able to recover fully and resume his studies at Drake University.”

Murphy, whom Drake basketball’s website lists as a native of Griffith, Indiana, transferred to the Bulldogs from Florida Southwestern after being named an All-American at the junior-college level in 2018.

It’s the second time in about a year that a student-athlete in Iowa has been charged for his involvement in what investigators believe was an accidental shooting.

Former Iowa wrestler Sam Stoll was charged with false report to a public entity as a senior in June 2018 for allegedly lying to police about how he was shot in the knee. The All-American heavyweight initially told police he shot himself, but eventually reported that he made the story up to protect a friend that had shot him during a prank. He pleaded to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct and was fined.