Pelicans guard Bryce Dejean-Jones dies of gunshot wound at age 23

New Orleans Pelicans guard Bryce Dejean-Jones has died at the age of 23, according to a report first published by Travis Hines of the Ames Tribune on Saturday.

Former Iowa State men’s basketball player and current New Orleans Pelican Bryce Dejean-Jones has died, the Dallas (Texas) County coroner’s office confirmed to the Ames Tribune on Saturday.

He was 23 years old.

According to a tweet by Yahoo’s Shams Charania, Dejean-Jones was shot and died from his injuries. ESPN’s Justin Verrier tweeted that the cause of death was confirmed by Dejean-Jones’ agent, Scott Nichols.
An article by ESPN notes that Dallas police have reported that Dejean-Jones was shot and killed after breaking into an apartment. Nichols stated in the article that Dejean-Jones mistook the apartment for one belonging to his girlfriend.

Dejean-Jones was visiting his girlfriend in Dallas for his daughter’s first birthday, which was Saturday, according to Nichols. He said the girlfriend returned to the apartment first while Dejean-Jones went for a walk after they had gone out.

“He went to the wrong apartment unfortunately and I think he thought his girlfriend locked him out, so he was knocking on the door, banging on the door, it’s locked,” Nichols told the Associated Press. “So one thing led to another.”

Sources told ESPN that Dejean-Jones was involved in an argument with the child’s mother before the shooting.

Dejean-Jones signed a three-year contract with the Pelicans in February. He appeared in 14 games for the team, starting 11 of those, this past season on multiple short-term contracts. He scored 79 points, had 48 rebounds, 15 assists and 10 steals.

In August of last year he signed a minimum-salary contract with the Pelicans only to be waived in October. In January and February, he signed two 10-day contracts to help the injury-depleted New Orleans roster.

Born in Los Angeles, Dejean-Jones initially attended USC to play basketball before transferring to UNLV for two seasons and then transferred to Iowa State for a final season. He played in 117 collegiate games and scored 1,266 points and had 471 rebounds.