Ex-New Mexico State basketball player not facing charges in fatal shooting

Published May. 23, 2023 1:48 p.m. ET
Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Former New Mexico State basketball player Mike Peake will not face charges in a fatal shooting on a rival college’s campus last year, according to authorities.

The Bernalillo District Attorney’s Office said in a statement Monday evening that “the decision to not charge Mike Peake was made by the prior administration based on all the facts and evidence presented to them. Nothing has changed, so we’re honoring that decision.”

Peake was placed on indefinite suspension shortly after the Nov. 19 shooting death of Brandon Travis, a 19-year-old University of New Mexico student.

Peake, 21, told authorities that he was lured to UNM’s Albuquerque campus by a female student hours before the Aggies were to play the rival Lobos.

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Authorities said Travis and two other men then assaulted Peake with a baseball bat in a dormitory parking lot as part of a revenge plot stemming from a fight last October in Las Cruces.

Video surveillance footage showed an exchange of gunfire between Travis and Peake. Authorities said Travis was shot multiple times and died at the scene while Peake suffered a leg wound and survived.

Peake, a 6-foot-7 junior forward, entered the NCAA transfer portal in December but has yet to join another college team.

In February, New Mexico State indefinitely suspended its men’s basketball program in a move that university officials said was unrelated to the fatal shooting.

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