Teens Charged With Murder In College Basketball Player's Death

HOPEWELL, NJ - Two teens were arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a 20-year-old Monmouth County resident and college basketball player in a Mercer County nature preserve, authorities said.

A 16-year-old from Pennington and 17-year-old from Hopewell were arrested Friday and charged with murder, felony murder, robbery and weapons offenses, Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo J. Onofri and Hopewell Police Chief James Rosso said in a joint statement.

An investigation from the Mercer County Homicide Task Force and Hopewell Township Police Department found that the teens robbed the shooting victim, Philip Urban, of a quarter pound of marijuana for $800, Onofri and Rosso said.

The teen boys will be lodged at the Middlesex County Youth Detention Center pending detention hearings, officials said. The case will also be screened by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office to determine if the teens can be tried as adults.

On Dec. 17 at around 7 p.m., responding officers found a white Mercedes C300 on a trail at the Hopewell Valley Nature Preserve off of Harbourton-Woodsville Road with Urban “slumped over the driver’s seat,” the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said in a previous statement.

Urban was taken to Capital Health Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound a short time later, the prosecutor’s office said.

An initial investigation found that Urban planned to meet an acquaintance at the preserve and was shot at some point during the interaction, authorities said.

Urban was a Pennington School graduate and joined the Post University basketball team in Connecticut earlier this year as a freshman, according to the New York Post. He played his first college basketball game for the team last month, NJ101.5 added.

“As a member of the Men's basketball team and a Business Administration major, Philip modeled the attributes of leadership and commitment and hard work on the court and in the classroom,” Post University CEO and President John Hopkins said in a statement to multiple media outlets.

While previous reports noted Urban was from Manalapan, his obituary mentions that he resided in Marlboro. A burial mass was held on Friday at St. Gabriel’s RC Church in Marlboro.