Former Mount Vernon high school basketball star wounded in gang shootout

MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. (WABC) -- A former star high school basketball player in Westchester County was shot and wounded during a gang shootout.

And now there are questions about whether his injuries will affect his college basketball career.

The Mount Vernon neighborhood where Isaiah Cousins grew up and where he was shot in the back Tuesday night is a hotbed of gangs and drug violence.

Police patrol in cars and even on bikes, but the violence continues.

Cousins was a standout player in Mount Vernon and when he got the chance, he went just about as far away from the streets of Mount Vernon as he could, to Norman Oklahoma, to play for the Oklahoma Sooners in college.

"He's a nice dude, always had a smile on his face. Real jolly fellow, he's a friendly guy," said an Oklahoma friend, Chuka Ndulue.

Cousins' family did not want to talk Wednesday night. The 20-year old college sophomore was home in Mount Vernon Tuesday night visiting when he was shot.

"I've spoken to Isaiah and he is doing well," his college coach said in a statement tonight. "It truly was a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was simply talking to some friends when an outsider fired a shot...the bullet struck him in the back of the shoulder."

Police say the shooter was a gang member, an all too common storyline here.