A college basketball player was found shot dead in the driver’s seat of a Mercedes parked at a nature preserve.

Phil Urban, a student athlete attending Post University in Connecticut on a basketball scholarship, was found dead in a Hopewell Valley Nature Preserve in Mercer County, New Jersey.

Urban, 20, was found slumped over the steering wheel in a white Mercedes-Benz C300 parked on a trail in the nature preserve around 7pm on Saturday night, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said.

He was rushed to Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton where he was pronounced dead.

Police believe he arranged to meet an acquaintance at the park. It is not clear if this person is the suspected shooter.

Urban’s death is being investigated as a homicide. No arrests have been made so far.

Urban as originally from Manalapan, New Jersey. He attended high school at the Pennington School, an elite private day and boarding school in central New Jersey.

He accepted a scholarship to play basketball at Post University in April 2022. ‘Phil is a 6’6 skilled wing from Manalapan, NJ who can play multiple positions. We are excited about what Phil will add to our team both as a player and person,’ the school’s basketball team wrote on Twitter after his signing.

‘The Post University community is heartbroken to learn of the death of freshman student Phil Urban last night,’ Post CEO and President John Hopkins stated. ‘Phillip modelled the attributes of leadership, commitment, and hard work on the court and in the classroom.’

Urban’s murder comes less than a week after another high profile criminal incident in the college basketball world. Early on the morning of Monday, December 12, University of Texas head coach Chris Beard was arrested for felony assault involving a family member.

The coach of the top-ranked Texas Longhorns was suspended without pay soon after his arrest while he awaits trial.

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