CHICAGO — A former basketball standout and team captain was fatally shot in East Garfield Park Sunday.
Timothy Triplett, 20, of the 4400 block of West Adams Avenue, was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital at 1:15 p.m., accordng to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
Around 12:45 p.m., police found Triplett unresponsive in the 3500 block of West Flournoy Street after being shot multiple times, said Officer Veejay Zala, a Chicago Police Department spokesman.
Dre, a neighbor who refused to give his last name, stood on his porch across the street from the blue poster board with blue balloons serving as a memorial for Triplett. Triplett was frequently seen on the block and would spend the night with friends in the area, he said.
"I talked to him from time to time. He had two kids and was getting ready to play basketball in college," said the neighbor, adding that neighborhood has seen a lot of violence recently.
Triplett was one of three people shot and 22 wounded over the weekend. Almost 12 hours after the shooting and less than a mile from where Triplett was slain, a 28-year-old man was shot, robbed and carjacked at a gas station in the 600 block of South Independence Boulevard.
Dre said he heard about seven shots before he saw Triplett's lifeless body lying under a tree to which a blue memorial poster now has been tied.
Henry Cotton, who coached Triplett at Marshall High School after he transferred from Crane Tech for his senior year, said he made a great impact on the school, team and players in his single year there, becoming the basketball team's captain.
"When you remember him, you just see that big smile," said Cotton, adding he was shocked to hear about the shooting of the "great and tough kid."
"I was hurt, very hurt. That's the only word to really describe it. I was shocked his name and number were called," Cotton said.
Triplett graduated from Marshall in 2014 and was attending Wilbur Wright College. He had hoped to return to basketball next year, Cotton said.
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