Promising Northwestern Univ. football player accidentally shot to death by friend

Playing with a gun in the Nashville home of 19-year-old Marcel Price recently ended with the Northwestern (IL) University football player dead and one his best friends charged with the fatal shooting.

Price, who redshirted during his freshman year last season with the Northwestern Wildcats, was expected to play special teams and defense this fall.

Friends were visiting with Price around 1:18 a.m. on July 17 when Ohmar Deshawn Braden - a teammate at Whites Creek High School in Nashville - came calling.

According to published reports quoting police in Nashville, the young men began playing with a .357 caliber handgun. Braden, thinking the chamber was empty, pointed it at Price and pulled the trigger.

The bullet struck Price in the upper chest and he died two hours later.

Braden, 19, was charged with criminal homicide. He was released on a bond of $31,250.

Braden and Price were so close that Braden would call Price's mother "mama."

Price, a four-year honor roll student in high school, was interested in accounting at Northwestern. He told friends that he wanted to play in the NFL but if that didn't happen, he would join an accounting firm.