Godspeed Devon Butler: NIU linebacker in critical condition with gunshot wound

Northern Illinois linebacker Devon Butler, a Florida native who finished second on the team in tackles last year as a sophomore, is listed in critical condition this afternoon after being shot in his apartment Tuesday night.

DeKalb police said Butler unwittingly found himself in the line of fire in retaliation for an apparent drug deal gone bad earlier in the evening, in which Butler (according to police) is not suspected in any capacity:

Police were called at 11:56 p.m. Tuesday for a report of gunshots in the area of Aspen Court and Hillcrest Drive in DeKalb. While there are varying reports, Feithen said that police believe four rounds were fired from a 9 millimeter handgun from a vehicle on the roadway. The shots were fired at Apartment #3, 1009 Aspen Court, according to a news release from DeKalb Police.

The drug transaction did not happen at that apartment, Feithen said, but the suspects believed that one of the individuals involved in the earlier incident was in that residence.

One of those shots penetrated the window in Apartment #3 and struck Butler. Feithen said that Butler was shot on the right side of his back, and that bullet fragments have been recovered from his body. Butler is out of surgery and doctors are "cautiously optimistic" that he will be OK, Feithen said.

Two other NIU students were arrested Tuesday night and have both been charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm, Class X felonies that carry up to 30 years in prison if convicted. They were also charged with aggravated discharge of a firearm, a felony punishable by up to 15 years, and unlawful delivery of marijuana, which can bring up to three years. (Aside: What kind of enrolled college student, even among the drug-dealing/using set, comes to the decision that it's worth risking the very real, attainable opportunity to earn a degree from a four-year university to avenge some weed? By firing blindly into an apartment occupied by apparently innocent bystanders? What was the cost-benefit analysis on that?)

Butler was initially transported to a hospital in DeKalb, but airlifted early this morning to a medical center in nearby Rockford. Best wishes for a fast and full recovery.

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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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