Who Was Phil Urban? 20-Year-Old College Basketball Player Shot Dead In Car

KEY POINTS

The incident took place at a nature preserve in Mercer County in New Jersey
He was sitting in a white Mercedes when he was shot dead
A homicide investigation has been launched into the incident

A 20-year-old Pennington School graduate was fatally shot while he was at a nature preserve in New Jersey's Mercer County on Saturday evening, authorities said.

The college basketball player has been identified as Phil Urban.

Urban, who was 6.6-foot tall, was sitting in a white Mercedes when he was shot dead, media reports said.

In a statement, the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office said the Manalapan native was at the Hopewell Valley Nature Preserve. When the police arrived at the scene, they found Urban "slumped over" in the driver's seat of the vehicle, which was parked on a trail, according to the New York Post.

The police rushed him to Capital Health Regional Medical Center, where he was declared dead, the authorities said, adding Urban died from the gunshot wound.

A homicide investigation was launched into his death as the detectives tried to determine the circumstances surrounding the shooting. No arrests have been made as of Monday morning.

Preliminary investigation revealed Urban was planning to meet someone at Hopewell park.

The freshman forward played his first college basketball game for Post University in Connecticut last month.

"The Post University community is heartbroken to learn of the death of freshman student, Philip Urban last night," Post University CEO and President John Hopkins said in a statement to New Jersey 101.5. "As a member of the Men's basketball team and a Business Administration major, Philip modeled the attributes of leadership, commitment and hard work on the court and in the classroom."

Hopkins shared his condolence with Urban's family, friends, and others affected by his passing, saying they "find strength during this extremely difficult time."

One of his former teams, the New Jersey Panthers, had written about him on Twitter in March, "The bouncy 6'6 wing has loads of potential and we can't wait to see what he does at Post!"