Shooting at Michael Vick’s Birthday Party

Controversy just seems to follow Michael Vick wherever he goes. Recently he was declared the most hated athlete in sports in a poll. It was his second title in a row.

Now this breaking news about events this morning surrounding the shooting at his birthday party is just another ’situation’ to add to the list.

Vick has never been a model citizen, and many fans of his were hoping he would finally walk the straight and narrow after the whole illegal dog fighting incident had begun to blow over. Even though I doubt Vick was directly involved in the shooting incident himself, this will ultimately end up being another PR lesson in being careful what company you keep if you are a well-known professional athlete.

A man was shot outside of a Virginia Beach club early this morning, and sources have said that the incident occurred at a birthday party for NFL star Michael Vick.

Several people who attended the party say that the non-fatal shooting outside Guadalajara, in the 4600 block of Columbus Street in the Town Center of Virginia Beach, occurred at one of a handful of birthday celebrations for Vick last night. Adam Bernstein, spokesman for Virginia Beach police, declined to comment on whether the event at the club was connected to Vick. {via}

UPDATE: Pro Football Talk is reporting that the man shot at the Vick event was none other than one of Vick’s co-defendants in the dogfighting case that brought Vick down.

The twist is that Vick and Phillips were in a confrontation (about cake?) at the club where Vick was celebrating his 30th birthday. Phillips showed up despite the fact he is not supposed to be associated with any of the other co-defendants.

According to Daily Press reporter David Squires, Phillips showed up to the party even though Vick is not supposed to be associating with any of his dogfighting co-defendants.

Squires writes that there was a confrontation between Phillips and Vick inside the party, that the confrontation then moved outside, and that’s when Phillips was shot.

Vick’s lawyer, Larry Woodward, says Vick was not involved and was not present when the shooting occurred.

According to the Daily Press report, there were witnesses who “don’t want it to be known if they were witnesses.” Police say the victim and witnesses were uncooperative.

The future investigation should be interesting in this case to see if Vick will be called out as being involved in the shooting, what violations of his parole might be, and what NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s punishment will be if it turns out that Vick is was directly involved in the shooting.