DALLAS (AP) – Ty Jordan, a star freshman who fled back to the University of Utah, died at a hospital in Dallas after being accidentally shot, authorities said on Sunday.
University officials announced Jordan’s death on Saturday, one day after the new Pac-12 newcomer was named, but did not disclose details.
Jordan, 19, died in an emergency room at a Denton hospital around 10:45 p.m. on Christmas Day, according to forensic records.
Police officers responded about an hour earlier to reports of a shooting at a home in Denton, a town 64 kilometers northeast of downtown Dallas. Officers found that a man accidentally shot himself in the hip and began providing first aid, Denton police spokesman Allison Beckwith said on Saturday. She said the man later died at a hospital and investigators did not know how he ended up shooting himself.
Beckwith declined to identify the man by name, but online records of cases at the forensic doctor in Tarrant County on Sunday showed he was Jordan.
Jordan’s cause of death is mentioned as a “fire wound of the abdomen” in the records. His death has not yet been released and officials at the coroner’s office could not be reached immediately for comment on Sunday. Denton police did not respond to a request for comment Sunday.
Jordan emerged as a tail player in Mesquite, a suburb of Dallas, about 80 miles southeast of Denton.
Jeff Neill, the head coach of the high school where Jordan played, told Dallas Morning News: “His smile was infectious and his spirit shone on all who knew him.”