WACO, Texas -- When Patrick Dennehy and Carlton Dotson got locked out of their third-floor apartment last semester, they knocked on their neighbor's door and laughed while asking if they could crawl over the balcony.

	Dotson

	Dennehy

The Baylor University basketball players and their other roommate were fun-loving, well-mannered and never argued, neighbor Kristal Wilson, 21, said Monday.

But a police informant in Delaware told authorities that Dennehy, who has been missing nearly three weeks, was shot in the head by Dotson with a 9 mm handgun.

"They were just really funny guys," Wilson, a senior from El Paso, said, fighting back tears. "I'm sure it's upsetting for everybody. It's a tragedy."

According to court documents, the informant said Dotson told a cousin that he and Dennehy were shooting guns in the Waco area and that Dennehy pointed a gun at Dotson as if to shoot him.

But Dotson instead shot Dennehy, the informant said. Dotson said he then drove home to Hurlock, Md., and got rid of the guns along the way, the informant said.

The search warrant affidavit released Monday was filed June 23 in 19th District Court in McLennan County.

So far, no charges have been filed. ``We are talking to numerous individuals,'' Waco police spokesman Steve Anderson said. ``There are several people of interest.'' Waco Police Chief Alberto Melis said Monday that no body has been found. District Attorney John Segrest declined to comment.

A message left on an answering machine at a number listed for Dotson's guardians in Maryland was not returned Tuesday.

But on Friday, Dotson told The Dallas Morning News from his Hurlock, Md., home, "I had to talk to police today, and I told them everything I can tell them and everything I knew."

He added that police asked him not to discuss the case and that he had learned Dennehy was missing from Dennehy's girlfriend.

A source close to the team told ESPN.com that Dennehy and Dotson were going to be roommates for the 2003-04 season, but that was before Dotson and Baylor coach Dave Bliss mutually agreed that Dotson wouldn't return.

During a May conversation, Bliss told Dotson that there were five players ahead of him at his position, including Dennehy. Dotson's scholarship wasn't renewed, according to The Associated Press, and the 6-foot-7 forward was expected to transfer to a lower-division NCAA school before next fall for his final season of college eligibility.

A source said Dotson told investigators that his reason for not returning to Baylor was lack of playing time, not any sort of disagreement with Bliss or others in the program.

Dennehy's family reported the 6-foot-10, 230-pound junior missing June 19. His sport utility vehicle, its license plates missing, was found last week in a mall parking lot in Virginia Beach, Va.

Waco police asked the FBI to join the investigation Friday and said several Baylor players had been questioned and were "potential suspects."

Tom Stanton, Baylor athletic director, released a statement late Monday confirming that Dotson was a former player, but said he couldn't discuss the case.

He said he wanted to stop "negative suggestions about his (Dennehy's) temperament."

"We saw a young man who got along well with his teammates and was extremely [eager] to compete this year," Stanton said. "Patrick has been a model student-athlete since coming to Baylor. That's why these incredible events have stunned and upset us all."

Dennehy transferred to Baylor last fall in hopes of making what he called a fresh start.

He played two seasons at the University of New Mexico, where he averaged 10.6 points and 7.5 rebounds his sophomore year.

He was cut from the team after losing his temper during practice, two months after he argued with a teammate during a game, kicked a chair and stormed out.

He accepted a scholarship to play basketball at Baylor, the world's largest Baptist university with more than 14,000 students, and told friends he had become a born-again Christian. He was a B student and rarely missed a class.

"It's a fresh start," Dennehy said in May 2002. "I feel great. It's a new coach, a new team, a new set of personalities."

At Baylor, he was not eligible to play basketball for a year, but he practiced with the team and sat on the bench during games.

Dotson, a 6-foot-7 forward, averaged 4.6 points and 2.5 rebounds in a reserve role with Baylor last season. He came to the Waco school after spending two seasons at Paris (Texas) Junior College.

Brian McDonald, 21, a Baylor junior from Houston who had taken classes with both Dotson and Dennehy, said "it sent chills through my body" to hear that Dotson, dubbed "Dottie" by friends, could be involved in Dennehy's disappearance.

Friends and family said it was uncharacteristic of Dennehy to disappear for days on end without calling someone.

Roommate Chris Turk, who is not on the basketball team, told police he last saw Dennehy before leaving for a trip June 11. When Turk returned five days later, the apartment looked normal but Dennehy's dogs had not been fed, he said.

Dennehy's girlfriend in Albuquerque, N.M., 20-year-old Jessica De La Rosa, said he seemed fine during their last phone conversation the night of June 11.

When Dennehy did not call his Santa Clara, Calif., home on Father's Day, June 15, his mother and stepfather, Valorie and Brian Brabazon, got worried. They called his friends and then the university.

Mr. Brabazon also said that someone had recently broken into Dennehy's SUV and stolen money from him, and that Dennehy had told Baylor coaches he was scared.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.