William Floyd grad fatally shot in Rhode Island, family says

A former William Floyd High School basketball player was shot and killed early Saturday as he walked home from a nightclub in Providence, Rhode Island, according to The Associated Press and a family member.

Providence police said Saturday they had a person of interest in custody in the fatal shooting of Devin Burney, 22, a 2013 graduate of William Floyd and a member of the school’s 2012 Suffolk Class AA championship team.

Burney was shot at about 1:30 a.m. after leaving the Noah Lounge, police said. Providence police were not immediately available for comment Monday.

Authorities said Burney was taken to Rhode Island Hospital where he later died.

Burney’s cousin, Danielle Burney, 28, said in a telephone interview Monday that she was “in shock” after learning of the shooting. The two were close because he lived with her family for about five years, she said.

Devin Burney was born in Providence but moved into the home of Danielle Burney in Shirley when he was in “about ninth or 10th grade,” she said. He moved back to Providence where he lived with her mother, who is his aunt, after graduating from William Floyd.

“He was a standout player on the [William Floyd] basketball team,” Danielle Burney said, though she said he did not have his sights set on a professional basketball career. “He wanted to be an entrepreneur and have his own business.”

Before his junior year at William Floyd, Devin Burney played on a team of Long Island high school standouts that won the gold medal at the 2011 BCANY Summer Games in upstate Johnson City.

Danielle Burney said her cousin had been at the nightclub with friends for a “general night out” when he was shot but she did not know the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

“I was in shock,” Danielle Burney said of her reaction when told of the shooting by her mother. “I just saw him here last Sunday for his sister’s graduation [from William Floyd]. “It was a very happy moment with family enjoying each other.”

Asked what she will remember about her cousin, Danielle Burney said, “When I think of my cousin I think of him as someone who was funny, ambitious, family-oriented and outgoing who was loyal to family and friends.”

She said funeral arrangements were being made Monday.