Michael Vick's attorney, Lawrence H. Woodward Jr., told *The Virginian-Pilot* on Monday that the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback voluntarily answered Virginia Beach, Va., police's questions about a shooting that happened after his birthday bash at a local nightclub.
Woodward, who accompanied Vick to the interview, said the quarterback told a detective that he left the nightclub before the shooting happened Friday morning and didn't know the shooter's identity. The police then told Vick he wasn't a suspect or person of interest in the shooting, Woodward said.
Virginia Beach police spokesman Adam Bernstein later confirmed that Vick answered questions at police headquarters and isn't a suspect in the case. No arrest has been made.
Police haven't identified the shooting victim, but several news outlets identified him as Quanis Phillips, one of the co-defendants in the dogfighting case that landed Vick in federal prison for 18 months. A hospital spokesman confirmed that Phillips was admitted to the hospital Friday morning and discharged that afternoon but refused to disclose his injuries, citing privacy laws.
Woodward said Vick didn't invite Phillips to the party and had no contact with him there. Vick remains on three years probation and isn't allowed to associate with anyone convicted of a felony unless granted permission to do so by his probation officer.
Promoter JaPharrii Jones said the event was open to the public for a fee, according to The Virginian-Pilot. The party was hyped on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter as "Michael Vick's ALL WHITE 30th Birthday Bash."
Ahmadu Garba, the producer of Vick's reality show on BET, believes the quarterback knows the people involved in the shooting.
"Mike is the king of Hampton, Virginia. Everybody knows him. He knows everybody," Garba said on WGFX-AM (via SportsRadioInterviews.com). "When he had his welcome back home party, I was at the party. There was a bunch of guys where Mike had to say, 'No, you can't let those guys in.' Because he knew what was going on.
"Mike knows the guy who got shot. I don't know who did the shooting. They don't know. As far as I know, Mike didn't have anything to do with it. Everybody wants something from Mike."
An NFL spokesman said Monday that the league is looking into the shooting and had no further comment. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell reinstated Vick last July after suspending him for two years and said at the time that the quarterback's margin for error would be "extremely limited."
Goodell said Sunday night that he's looking into the shooting incident.
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"We're still gathering the facts," Goodell told NFL.com's Vic Carucci. "I think they've been reported fairly accurately from what I can tell, and we've been told by law enforcement that he's not a focus of this at all. Obviously we've got to look to see whether there was any violation of policy in there or his conditions (for reinstatement last year after he served jail time and a suspension for the dogfighting incident). We're continuing to gather that."
Woodward said Vick left the club, Guadalajara, at least 10 minutes and perhaps as much as 20 minutes before the shooting, which occurred just after 2 a.m. The shooting victim and witnesses at first were uncooperative, according to police, but Bernstein said detectives have now interviewed several people.
Police have said witnesses described the shooter as a black man wearing a white tank top and driving a white Cadillac Escalade.
Vick, who is from nearby Newport News, was in the area conducting a football camp at Hampton University.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
