Eastern Michigan University’s 20-year-old junior wide receiver Demarius Reed was found murdered at an off-campus apartment. The officers said it was part of a robbery as many items were missing.
“The circumstances involving his death remain under investigation at this time by the Ypsilanti Police Department,” EMU president Susan Martin said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends, and his teammates on the football team.”
The team will still play their home game against Ohio University on Saturday. Grief counselors are available for his teammates and anyone else at the school. He loved football and in six games caught 15 passes for 181 yards and one touchdown.
Reed attended Simeon Academy in Chicago and was majoring in communication, media and theater arts. His grandfather said Reed wanted to play in the NFL.
“I told him, ‘Man, you have to stay in that gym,'” Joe L. Reed said in a telephone interview from Chicago. “He would say, ‘I’m good enough.’ He loved the game.”
The elder Reed said he found irony in the tragedy of his grandson’s slaying: Demarius was able to survive the dangerous streets and gangs of Chicago only to become a victim in the perceived safety of a university community.
“He was an outgoing, beautiful kid. He wasn’t associated with no gang or anything,” he said. “I would say, ‘Hey man. Don’t go outside.’ I wouldn’t let him associate with anybody over there.”
Over there, he said, is the area near Simeon on Chicago’s South Side.
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