Teammates struggle to understand Durham shooting

The coach and teammates who knew Brinton Millsap as a basketball player at Arkansas Baptist College struggled Tuesday with the news that he killed three women and then committed suicide last Friday night along a Durham County road.

"He was a fine young man. He was no angel, but he was very diligent, very diligent," said the man who coached him for two season. Charles Ripley said Millsap usually made the dean's list in his two years at the school.

Since the reports of the murder-suicide, Ripley said, other player who knew Millsap have called him to try to make sense of the news.

"He took care of his business and was friendly with everybody. Everybody liked him," Ripley said.

Authorities say Millsap, 23, of 8 Mellon Court, shot three women then turned the gun on himself.

The bodies of Alexandria J. (AJ) Baker Pierce, 23, of 2327 Oriole Drive, Amesha Alia Page-Smith, 24, of 822 Roane St., and Adrianne Celeste Stevens, 22, of 2022 Buffalo Way, were found in a parked car near the intersection of Park Office Drive and N.C. Highway 54 in Research Triangle Park, just before midnight on Friday. 

The car belonged to Page-Smith's mother. Millsap was found outside the car.

Stevens' mother said Monday that the four had been friends since elementary school.

All four attended Durham's Southern High School at one time. Page-Smith graduated in 2005 and Stevens followed in 2006. Pierce graduated from Hillside the same year. Millsap withdrew from Durham's Northern High in 2006. 

Anyone who may have been in the area and seen anything unusual from 11 p.m. Friday to midnight is asked to call the Durham County Sheriff's Office criminal investigations division at 919-560-0880.