BATON ROUGE, La. - LSU basketball player Wayde Sims was to begin practice for his junior season this afternoon.
But Sims, the son of former LSU star Wayne Sims of DeRidder and Louisana's Gatorade Player of the year while at University High in 2015, was shot to death during a fight near the Southern University campus after midnight Friday.
The Baton Rouge Police released the following video Friday morning of the incident. The audio of the video has been removed.
Detectives are now trying to identify the person wearing red pants and white strip down the leg and gray shirt and the other people seen in the video.
"This is your worst nightmare as a coach," LSU basketball coach Will said in a press conference Friday morning at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. "We want to remember Wayde and what a great person he was. Everybody liked him, loved his personality. He was just a blast to be around at all times. We are all devastated. We need your prayers for Wayde, for his family, for all of us. We are heartbroken."
Baton Rouge Police said Sims, 20, was shot at about 12:25 a.m. outside a Subway restaurant at 668 Harding Boulevard that closed at 9 p.m. He was taken to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead shortly thereafter. Wade was at the hospital early Friday.
"There's no lower downs than what happened last night," LSU athletic director Joe Alleva said. "It is an absolute tragedy. In 40 years in athletics, this may be the saddest day that I've ever experienced in my career. I told the players they'll never forget this day."
A 6-foot-6 small forward who averaged 5.6 points and 2.9 rebounds last season mainly as a backup, Sims may have remained a backup as the 2018-19 LSU team will have a major influx of talent this season with the No. 3 recruiting class in the nation by Rivals.com coming on board. But Wade said Sims was improving and was very impressed with him during the off-season.
"He was on an upward trajectory," Wade said. "He was on a big time upward trajectory."
Sims averaged 6.5 points and 3.8 rebounds as a freshman at LSU in the 2016-17 season. He helped lead University High to three state championships in 2014, '15 and '16. Sims averaged 21.2 points, 9.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists a game as a senior in the 2015-16 season. He was named the MVP of the state top 28 playoff tournament twice.
Baton Rouge Police had not released much information on Sims' death.
"I don't know a whole lot about he details at this time," Wade said. "You tell your players to stay away from these situations.
Sims' father Wayne Sims was part of the Tigers' Southeastern Conference championship team in 1991 under Coach Dale Brown with Shaquille O'Neal that finished 20-10 overall and 13-5 in the league and reached the NCAA Tournament. He also played with Chris Jackson from 1988-90 and went to four NCAA Tournaments in all.