2023-01-06 08:00:00
BILLINGS — The first gunshots Brooke Berry says she ever heard in her life sent her and her roommates scurrying back to their apartment, where they fell to the floor hoping to get out of harm’s way.
Berry’s life was disrupted — changed, even, she says — just hours following her parents, Gale and Amy, had started their return trip home to Billings following taking their daughter to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to begin the next stage of her life as a freshman basketball player at the University of New Mexico.
Two more gun-related incidents in the ensuing weeks, one just outside Berry’s apartment, the other resulting in the death of a New Mexico student directly on the university campus, would drive Berry away from a potential career with the Lobos and into the arms of Montana State.
If the last episode was the final straw that made Berry pack her bags, the first was the eye-opener.
“Living in fear, that’s not something that a college kid should be dealing with,” Berry says now. “I get the homesickness, I get earning your spot on the team. All that stuff I was fine with. But I was scared to go to the grocery store, even to walk to class.”
It was June, and Berry had barely settled into Albuquerque to prepare for her upcoming basketball season. A get-together that evening was planned in an outdoor area of Lobo Village, an apartment complex where some of the athletes, including male and female basketball players, live.
The mere existence of Lobo Village was one of the amenities that drew Berry, a Billings Skyview standout, to UNM. Many universities require freshmen to live in campus dorms, but at New Mexico, even freshmen athletes can house at Lobo Village.
The opportunity to live off-campus allowed athletes to have their own kitchens, their own bathroom — that would prove to be a hiding place later — and it all sounded good to Berry, who was also smitten by the university’s renowned arena, “The Pit,” a short walk from the Village.
But now, still getting familiar with her new home away from home, Berry was regarding to encounter something alien to her. The party atmosphere of the outside gathering at Lobo Village was suddenly interrupted by gun fire.
Berry thought someone had set off fireworks until her roommates began urging her to get inside their apartment. She said the gunman, before fleeing, eventually knocked on the players’ apartment door.
The gunman was “like, 50 feet away from me and my friends” when he started shooting, Berry told the Billings Gazette and 406mtsports.com. “So we ran back inside into the apartment, locked the door, and we were all on the ground, on the floor, just lying there calling the cops.
“And the (gunman) is, like, banging on the door, like ‘let me in, let me in.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, my, gosh, this is crazy.’“
When Berry called her parents to tell them of the shooting, they asked if she wanted to come home. She told them no, that what happened was likely a one-time thing.
She was wrong regarding that.
No one was hurt in the shooting, though Albuquerque news reports detailed shot-up cars and bullet holes in apartment walls. Berry says the management of Lobo Village increased its security detail, but despite that eight days later another shooting occurred. This time, Berry says, it was right outside one of her apartment windows.
The gunfire woke her up regarding midnight, Berry said. She ran into the bathroom, slumped into the bathtub, and called her parents once once more, sobbing.
“I don’t know what to do,” she told them. “I want to make this work, but this is scary.”
Berry said 78 rounds of ammunition can be heard on a video of the second shooting recorded by one of her roommates. Fortunately, once more no injuries were reported in this shooting, but photos sent to an Albuquerque television station showed bullet holes in a wall and a shot-out window.
Once once more, the university announced security measures at the complex would be stepped up and that helped convince Berry that she might, indeed, make it work at UNM.
She was happy to play for Lobos coach Mike Bradbury and enjoyed all her new teammates, following all. And, she was particularly eager to play in front of the more than 4,000 fans that on average stream into The Pit to watch women’s basketball.
Things did quiet down for the next few months to the extent that Berry might concentrate on her schooling and basketball. She played in the Lobos’ two exhibition wins but didn’t see any action once the regular season began.
By mid-November, Berry had decided she would redshirt her freshman year. It would mean her first season of non-competitive basketball that she might remember, but she also felt a season of adjustment to the Mountain West conference would be good for her.
Still, Berry was excited for the upcoming men’s basketball game Nov. 19 when the Lobos were to host rival New Mexico State. Last year’s home game drew more than 13,000 fans to The Pit for the rivalry game, and the women’s team was to be introduced to the fans at halftime.
But the game never took place. In the early-morning hours before the game, New Mexico State basketball player Mike Peake, following he himself was shot, brandished his own weapon and killed New Mexico student Brandon Travis during an altercation on the UNM campus.
School officials canceled the UNM-NMSU game, and for Berry, the deadly shooting was the final straw. She sat on the bench during the women’s game the next night once morest Arizona State, knowing in her mind those would be her last moments with the Lobos basketball program. She had decided to return to Billings.
Gun violence has been an increasing problem in Albuquerque, like many places. The Gun Violence Archive is a non-profit corporation formed in 2013 that uses information from more than 7,500 law enforcement, government, media and commercial sources in an attempt to track gun violence data in real time, according to its website (gunviolencearchive.org).
As of Thursday, Dec. 15, the organization had tracked 172 gun incidents and 135 gun deaths (either murder, accidental or suicide) for Albuquerque in 2022. For that same time in Billings, GVA listed 36 incidents and 17 deaths. Bozeman, which will be Berry’s new home away from home, had two incidents and one death, which was a suicide during a traffic stop, according to the report on the GVA web site.
Per Billings Police Department Lt. Matt Lennick, there were 44 shootings in Billings through Nov. 30. So, if anything, the GVA numbers might be a bit underreported.
At any rate, Albuquerque, with a 2022 metro population of 942,000, has set homicide records for the second straight year. The Albuquerque Journal reported that the Albuquerque Police Department investigated 114 homicides in 2021, and surpassed that in 2022 by investigating 121 homicides. Previously, the most homicides in a year was 89, according to the newspaper.
In terms of firearm mortality, New Mexico was 44th (22.7 deaths per 100,000 population) in the United States and Montana was 40th (20.9 deaths per 100,000) in 2020, the latest statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Berry said she got the sense in her short time in Albuquerque that some people had come to view the violence in New Mexico’s largest city and on the campus with a sense of resignation, almost as a way of life. But if that was going to be her new normal, she didn’t want any part of it.
“There’s a (19-year-old) kid who’s dead right on campus,” she said. “Like, this is not normal stuff that happens at a college, or that an 18-year-old college kid should have to be worrying regarding or dealing with.
“So I called my parents and said, ‘You need to come get me. I’m done with this place.’”
Berry’s parents drove 16 hours straight to Albuquerque. When they arrived, the Berrys met with Bradbury and told the coach Brooke was going to transfer. Berry said Bradbury was understanding and that he assisted her and her family any way he might.
Bradbury declined to comment to the Albuquerque Journal when the newspaper published its story on Berry’s decision to leave.
“They were very nice regarding it and obviously sad to see me go,” Berry said. “And I was sad to leave, given the circumstances. But, I mean, you have to do what you have to do.”
What Berry has to do now is get ready to be a Bobcat. She says she’ll start practice and be added to the Montana State roster Jan. 17. She maintains her redshirt year with four seasons of eligibility remaining.
When she was deciding which scholarship offer to accept during her initial recruiting phase, Montana State (and Montana, for that matter) were in her top five. All along, Berry said, she wanted to experience life outside of Montana and always intended to play out of state.
She did tell the Bobcats, however, that if she were to return to her home state, Montana State, where her father, Gale, played, would be her first choice.
Once in the transfer portal, athletes can take three official visits. Montana State, Oklahoma State and Wyoming all invited Berry to campus.
The only place she visited was Bozeman. Berry stuck to her promise.
Berry said her New Mexico experience was a “life lesson,” and she puts some of that blame on herself. She said she was blinded by the whole recruiting process. It’s exciting to be wanted by multiple programs, all of which are trying to wow prospects.
No one affiliated with the New Mexico program warned her regarding the potential for violence on and around the campus, Berry said. She also doesn’t blame them and holds no ill will toward anyone affiliated with the Lobos.
The lesson learned, she said, is recruits and their families need to research their new destination, to look at more than just the school’s athletic facilities and what a program offers in playing time.
“I would just say don’t get distracted by how great everything seems on your visit,” Berry said when asked if she had any advice. “The visit is specifically there to show you the basketball side of things. So when deciding on your future school, you should actually research the area, talk to people outside the (sports) community, because those people are going to tell you the truth.
“Honestly, (recruiters) are trying to make it seem like it’s the best place to be, and it might not be the best place for you.”
Berry knows not everyone will understand her decision to transfer or believe her reasoning. There has been some blowback since she announced she was leaving, but overwhelmingly she’s received support, she said.
In this age of the transfer portal, players switching schools is hardly news anymore. Not many transfers cite gun violence as a reason, however. Most transfers are due to on-the-court issues, such as playing time, personality clashes with coaches, or simply better opportunities.
Though her experience at UNM lasted just a few months, Berry knew she mightn’t continue to live the way she was.
“I have so much respect for (the New Mexico) coaches, and I absolutely love my teammates. It was very hard leaving New Mexico and very emotional for me and my family, because that was my family away from my family,” she said. “So no hard feelings, obviously, given the circumstances. That’s just what I had to do.”
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