Western Michigan basketball player charged with murder
KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Prosecutors have filed murder and armed robbery charges against a Western Michigan University basketball player in the killing of a fellow student last week.
Joeviair Kennedy is due to be arraigned Monday in a Kalamazoo County court in Thursday’s fatal shooting of 19-year-old Jacob Jones in an off-campus apartment. Prosecutors don’t know if the 20-year-old Muskegon man has an attorney yet.
Authorities allege that Kennedy killed Jones during a robbery of a phone and money. Others were present.
The school suspended Kennedy on Friday and he’s been scrubbed from the team’s website. He was in his second year on the team and was averaging more than 7 minutes per game in eight appearances this season.
Coach Steve Hawkins says the fatal shooting is a “devastating tragedy for everybody involved.”