Police Chasing Leads In EMU Football Player's Murder
YPSILANTI (WWJ/AP) - Police say they're working to exhaust all possibilities and tips in their murder investigation of Eastern Michigan University football player Demarius Reed.
Earlier this week, Ypsilanti's Interim Police Chief Tony DeGiusti said investigators have executed 14 search warrants, seized 42 pieces of evidence and interviewed more than 50 people as part of their work.
"We're still working diligently on the case," DeGiusti said at a City Council meeting. "[We] have expended over 600 man hours on the case, and we will continue to do so at that rate until we've exhausted all possibilities and tips."
DeGiusti said in addition to university investigators, the department has brought in outside help on the case.
Reed was found shot to death Oct. 18 in a hallway at the off-campus University Green apartments, on Green Road near Leforge Road, where he lived. The 20-year-old was shot multiple times in what police say may have been a robbery.
According to investigators, a party was taking place at the time Reed was killed. DiGiusti has said several students at the party reported hearing gunshots, but none of them called police.
"In the case of Demarius, we discovered … that no less than six people heard what they described as gun shots and no one called the police," he said. "We now know that at least one person and probably more walked right past Demarius as he lay on the stairwell and did not call the police because they just thought he was someone passed-out from the party."
Reed played in six games for Eastern Michigan this season. He was a communications major and starred as a receiver at Chicago's Simeon Career Academy.
A reward of up to $12,000 is being offered for tips in the case. Anyone with information on Reed's death is asked to contact Ypsilanti police at 734-483-9510.
Tips can also be provided anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP, online at www.1800speakup.org, or by texting "CSM" and your tip to CRIMES (274637).
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