Missing basketball player feared threats

WACO, Texas - Before he disappeared last month, Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy and his roommate were so worried about threats to their safety that they armed themselves for protection, a longtime friend said Wednesday.\nDaniel Okopnyi said he urged the Baylor forward to come stay with him in Fort Worth so he could avoid trouble, but Dennehy at first refused, saying he had to protect roommate Carlton Dotson.\n"He said, 'I've got Dotty's back,'" Okopnyi told ABC-TV's "Good Morning America."\nDennehy changed his mind about going to Fort Worth a few days later, saying June 14 he would come and bring Dotson along, Okopnyi said. Okopnyi said Dotson had a shotgun they were using for protection, but they were "trying to trade it in for two handguns," he said.\nThat was the last contact anyone has publicly reported with Dennehy. A woman told a newspaper she saw Dennehy and Dotson in Dennehy's vehicle in Waco on June 12. The vehicle was found last week on the East Coast.\nAccording to a search warrant affidavit citing a police informant, Dotson told a cousin he shot Dennehy as the two argued while firing guns.\nBut authorities called Dotson, a Hurlock, Md., resident who played basketball at Baylor last season, simply a "person of interest."\n"He's just a citizen. It's a missing person's case," said Hurlock police Capt. Chris Flynn.\nAuthorities said Tuesday they have no single suspect and still hope Dennehy is alive.\n"There's still a glimmer of hope Mr. Dennehy will show up and say, 'Hey, this is where I've been the whole time,'" Waco police spokesman Steve Anderson said.\nSearch dogs found no sign of Dennehy when the FBI helped Waco police search about 50 acres of private land north of town last week, Anderson said.\nNo charges have been filed, Anderson said. He said a Waco investigator interviewed Dotson on Friday, but he didn't know whether police had spoken to him since the affidavit was made public Monday.\nDotson told The Washington Post on Tuesday he has hired an attorney.\n"I want everyone associated with this to know my prayers are with them," Dotson told the newspaper.\nAt Hurlock, a rural community on Maryland's eastern shore, Dotson's aunt, Pat Waters, said he returned to town for the summer and was at her house Sunday, but they didn't discuss Dennehy. She didn't know where he was Tuesday.\nWaters said Dotson is "probably scared. He's not a person that talks a lot."\nGrady Irvin Jr., Dotson's lawyer, told the newspaper the next step is to "spend time with authorities to see if we can be of assistance." Irvin, a St. Petersburg, Fla., attorney who represents athletes, said Wednesday that he would release a statement later in the day.\nOkopnyi said Dennehy was worried about threats to Dotson by two of their teammates.\n"He was afraid for him. They were good friends," he said.\nOkopnyi said Dennehy "sounded extremely paranoid," which was unusual.\nDennehy's mother and stepfather told ABC their son and Dotson were friends, and Dotson seemed sincere and forthright.\nThey said Dennehy had no history with guns, though they knew he had told a coach he was worried about his safety.\n"We never raised our kids to touch guns or even be around guns. We never kept guns in our house," Valorie Brabazon said Wednesday. Not even toy guns, added her husband, Brian Brabazon.\nThe family reported Dennehy, a 6-foot-10-inch junior, missing June 19. His sport utility vehicle was found last week in a mall parking lot in Virginia Beach, Va.\nThe search warrant sought in the affidavit was for Dennehy's room and the contents of his computer. It doesn't say if anyone else was present when Dennehy and Dotson allegedly were firing guns. According to the affidavit, Dotson said he got rid of the guns while driving home to Maryland.\nA man who owns a Waco-area farm searched by police last week told The Dallas Morning News that Dennehy and Dotson were seen shooting guns there June 10, two days before Dennehy disappeared.\nThe property owner, who was not identified, said the two often visited the farm 20 miles northeast of Waco for sport shooting and fishing. The property owner's wife was the person who told the newspaper she saw the pair June 12.\nThe two had met the property owner and his wife in March while responding to an advertisement for pit bulls, the newspaper reported.\nDennehy sat out last season at Baylor because of NCAA transfer rules, his only year there after coming from the University of New Mexico, where he was cut after losing his temper during practice.