Shooting Clouds Future for NFL Draft Prospect

By all accounts, former Duarte High School football star Dennis Weathersby was days away from a professional football career when he was shot in the back Sunday, apparently by a gang member.

With the National Football League draft scheduled Saturday, Weathersby was a favorite to be picked in the first or second round, and family members were planning a celebration at his cousin’s home in Duarte.

On Monday, however, the former Oregon State University cornerback’s career was thrown into doubt as the strapping 22-year-old lay in Santa Teresita Hospital in Duarte, recovering from his wounds.

“I got to the hospital, and I was just crying,” said Weathersby’s cousin, who identified himself only as Michael. “Dennis wasn’t affiliated with nothing. That’s why we’re so mad, that’s why the family’s just so mad.”

According to police and family members, Weathersby had just picked up a childhood friend in Duarte about 5:24 p.m. when the shooting occurred.

The two were getting into the car outside the friend’s house at Meridian Drive and Citrus View Avenue when a white sport utility vehicle passed and someone inside fired several shots.

The SUV sped away and left Weathersby buckled in pain. One bullet had punctured the football player’s back, passed below his lungs and through his stomach, then entered his upper arm.

Police said they believe the shooter or shooters were gang members, and that two warring gangs are responsible for a spate of shootings in the area. Another shooting occurred in the same block almost a year ago to the day, investigators said.

“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I feel fine. I’m lucky,” Weathersby said in a statement delivered from his hospital bed. “The Lord has a reason for everything, and this must be part of his plan for me.”

Steve Caric, a spokesman for Premier Sports Management, which represents Weathersby, said the NFL prospect was recovering rapidly and would not require further surgery.

He insisted that the shooting would not jeopardize Weathersby’s playing condition, and that doctors predict he can resume training in two weeks and be able to play full contact football within two months.

“This isn’t a serious injury,” Caric said. “He wasn’t hit in any bones. He’ll be back in pads in six weeks.”

Caric acknowledged, however, that the shooting clouds Weathersby’s draft prospects.

Caric said that instead of being drafted in the first or second round, Weathersby might not be called up until the third or fourth round. “It would be wishful thinking that [the shooting] wouldn’t affect when he goes,” Caric said.

But “we can honestly say, after speaking with his doctors, that we don’t think it will affect his playing level.”

John Guy, personnel director for the Buffalo Bills, said of Weathersby’s prospects: “If he was a good kid and a victim, and if he gets through his rehab and passes a physical, somebody will always give him a chance.”

Weathersby, who recently graduated from Oregon State, played in 48 games there. He had been a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award, given to the nation’s best collegiate defensive back, and twice made the Pac-10’s all-academic team, an honor based on scholastic and athletic achievements.

San Francisco 49ers Coach Dennis Erickson, Weathersby’s former Oregon State coach, described him as a model player and student.

“I have spent the last four years with Dennis, and he is one of the greatest kids I have coached in my career,” he said. “He was a three-time academic All-American and is just a good person. Dennis was never in any trouble during our four years together. It sounds like he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. My concern is for his health and well-being.”

*

Times staff writer Sam Farmer contributed to this report.