Vick’s lawyer says QB not involved in shooting outside club where he celebrated birthday

Lawyer: Vick not involved in shooting outside club

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Michael Vick was not involved or present when a shooting took place outside a nightclub where he had celebrated his birthday, his lawyer said Friday.

Larry Woodward, one of the Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback’s attorneys in his federal dogfighting case, said Vick wasn’t at the club when the shooting took place just after 2 a.m. Friday outside the club Guadalajara at Town Center shopping center.

At a football camp he is holding at Hampton University, Vick was asked by a reporter Friday afternoon whether he had any comment on the incident.

“Watch what you do. Pick and choose your friends carefully. You just can’t put yourself in vulnerable situations,” Vick said.

The shooting victim was taken to a hospital, but his injuries were not life-threatening, Virginia Beach Police spokesman Adam Bernstein said. However, several news outlets identified him as Quanis Phillips, one of the co-defendants in the federal dogfighting case that landed Vick an 18-month federal prison sentence.

Phillips, who was sentenced to 21 months in prison for his role in the dogfighting operation, was admitted to Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital overnight, health system spokesman Dale Gauding said. He was discharged early Friday afternoon. Gauding said he was not able to discuss the nature of Phillips’ injuries because of privacy laws.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league is looking into the shooting.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell reinstated Vick after being suspended for two years last July, and said at the time that Vick’s margin for error would be “extremely limited.”

A statement from the Eagles said the team was still gathering facts about the incident and would not comment further.

Vick played sparingly last season, but is expected to take on a larger role this year after the team traded starter Donovan McNabb in the offseason. The team picked up an option and is to pay Vick $5.2 million this year.

Vick also is still on three years’ probation in the federal case and on a three-year suspended sentence for a state dogfighting conviction. He is not allowed to associate with anyone convicted of a felony unless granted permission to do so by his probation officer.

It is unclear whether Phillips was invited to the party, which was hyped on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter as “Michael Vick’s ALL WHITE 30th Birthday Bash.”

Tickets cost $50, and it was advertised as beginning at 9 p.m and ending at 2 a.m while promising a guest list that included NBA star Allen Iverson and Washington Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall, both natives of the area, and a host of other B-list celebrities.

Hall said via his Twitter feed on Friday that he was not at the party.

Vick’s former Atlanta teammate Roddy White was on the field with Vick at the football camp Friday. White said he and Vick had already left the party when the shooting took place.

On Thursday, Vick told reporters that he tells campers the truth when they ask about his previous troubles “because I don’t want them to follow in my footsteps. … I want them to walk a straight path, do all the things right, and just live a good life, and be happy.”

Police are still investigating, and Bernstein said the shooting victim and witnesses were being uncooperative. They did, however, describe the shooter as a black man in a white tank top driving a white Cadillac Escalade.