The 20-year-old son of former NBA player Nick Van Exel has been charged with capital murder in the death of a close friend, Dallas police announced Thursday.
Nickey
Maxwell Van Exel was arrested Wednesday night and jailed on $1 million
bond in the death of Bradley Bassey Eyo, 23. Police said Eyo was found
on Sunday with a gunshot wound to his upper body near Lake Ray Hubbard,
on the outskirts of Dallas.
Authorities later determined that Eyo
was killed at a home in the Dallas suburb of Garland and that his body
was dumped near the lake, police said.
Paul Johnson, the younger
Van Exel’s attorney, told The Associated Press that his client told
police he shot Eyo, a longtime friend and neighbor, while the two were
engaged in “horseplay” with a shotgun. He said Van Exel didn’t know the
gun, which belonged to his stepfather, was loaded.
