A shooting after an argument at an intersection in a New Orleans suburb Thursday has left a former NFL running back dead, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, NOLA.com reports.
Joe McKnight, 28, who played for both the New York Jets and the Kansas City Chiefs, was identified by family members at the scene.
The shooting, reported at 3 p.m., happened at the intersection of Behrman Highway and Holmes Boulevard in Terrytown, a suburb of New Orleans.
A woman who wished to remain anonymous told NOLA.com that she saw a man in the intersection yelling at another man, who was attempting to apologize. The man who was yelling shot the other man more than once, then stood over the victim and said, “I told you don’t you f—k with me,” and then fired again.
McKnight’s cousin Roxanne Lundy came to the scene after a relative called to tell her what happened.
“He didn’t deserve it,” Lundy said. “He was a good guy. It was 100 percent unnecessary.”
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand told reporters that the shooter, identified as 54-year-old Ronald Gasser, stayed on the scene and turned his gun in to authorities. The sheriff said that Gasser was in custody and being questioned.
Normand said that McKnight did not have a gun, and no gun was found outside his vehicle. The inside of McKnight’s vehicle had not been searched.
Bystander video of the scene after the shooting shows an emergency responder doing chest compressions on McKnight as several people can be heard yelling in the background.
“It could have been any one of us,” a woman can be heard saying.
As news of McKnight’s death spread, fans and colleagues took to social media to express their condolences.
Read more at NOLA.com.