Andray Blatche, a 19-year-old Syracuse native who was selected by the Washington Wizards in the second round of the NBA Draft in June, was shot in an apparent robbery near his home in Alexandria, Va., Sunday morning.
Blatche was shot once in the chest as two assailants approached a car in which he was a passenger around 6:30 a.m., according to an Alexandria, Va., police report. After the shooting, the driver of the car, who was not named in the report, drove to Blatche's home in the Washington, D.C., suburb and called police. Ambulance personnel responded and Blatche was taken via helicopter to Inova Fairfax Hospital in Fairfax, Va.
Blatche was listed in serious but stable condition, according to a police spokesman. Blatche's mother, Angela Oliver, of Syracuse, received a telephone call from the Alexandria police early Sunday morning.
"It's the phone call no mother ever wants to get," she said. She and several family members rushed from Syracuse to the hospital.
"He's doing OK," Oliver said late Sunday night from the hospital. "He's breathing on his own. The bullet didn't hit any vital organs. He's been sedated, but he's been talking to me when he's come out of it."
According to the police report, Blatche was in a car with two friends when they noticed a van following them. When they pulled over, two men wearing masks stepped out of the van. One man ordered Blatche out of the car and then shot him before Blatche could get out.
Oliver said the bullet passed through Blatche's body, missing his heart by an inch.
"They almost took his dream away," she said. "And for what?"
Police in Alexandria said no arrests have been made in the shooting.
Blatche, a 6-foot-11 forward, signed a two-year contract with the Wizards just last month. He was living in Alexandria and preparing for the start of the team's preseason training camp on Oct. 4. The Wizards' first preseason game is on Oct. 10 and the regular-season opener is on Nov. 5.
