Former NCAA basketball standout Lagerald Vick is facing an attempted first-degree murder charge after a man was shot in the back during a July 4 confrontation in Memphis.
Vick, 29, was arrested on Saturday, July 11, and hit with an additional charge of using a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony. His bail was set at $1.5 million.
According to charging documents, which were obtained by ESPN, the victim told police that a “verbal confrontation” escalated when he spotted a handgun beneath another man’s armpit. He said he “turned to run away” and was shot in the back. The victim was hospitalized and later identified Vick as the alleged gunman in a photo lineup after initially giving investigators the shooter’s first name.
The charges put Vick—a key player on Kansas’ 2018 Final Four squad—back in the spotlight for reasons far removed from basketball. The Memphis native appeared in 117 games for the Jayhawks between 2015 and 2019, developing from a lightly used freshman into one of Bill Self’s most important perimeter scorers.
At his peak, Vick could catch fire quickly. He scored 33 points against Louisiana and 32 against Vermont during his senior season, drilling 15 three-pointers across the two games to set a Kansas record. Vick also passed 1,000 career points in January 2019.
But less than a month later, Kansas announced that he was taking a “leave of absence to handle personal issues.” He never returned, missing the Jayhawks’ final eight regular-season games and all five of their postseason games.
Vick’s basketball career continued well beyond Lawrence. After withdrawing from the 2018 NBA Draft and returning to Kansas, he eventually played professionally in Taiwan, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Uruguay, and New Zealand.
He helped Astros de Jalisco win its first CIBACOPA championship in 2022 and earned multiple All-Star selections. His latest stop came with the Southland Sharks, who released him in April 2024. He also won a gold medal with the U.S. team at the 2015 World University Games.
The shooting case adds to Vick’s existing legal problems. He is already facing two felony charges and a misdemeanor over allegations that he broke into a former girlfriend’s home and committed theft, with a court date set for July 30.
Vick was also the subject of a Title IX investigation during his freshman year at Kansas after a female student accused him of assault, though he was never criminally charged. Vick was scheduled to be arraigned Monday, with a bail review set for Tuesday, July 14.
