Tennessee investigator: Southern Mississippi walk-on punter Peter Wilkes fatally shot himself

Police: Southern Miss player took own life

UNION CITY, Tenn. — Tennessee police say an 18-year-old walk-on punter at the University of Southern Mississippi committed suicide.

Union City special police investigator Derrick Odell said Monday that Peter Wilkes died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Wilkes of Union City died Saturday, four days after the shooting at his home.

Wilkes had not played this season. Coach Larry Fedora says Wilkes was home on fall break to help pick out a headstone for his father’s grave. His father died of a heart attack over the summer.

Fedora says Wilkes had decided to continue school and that “it was a dream that he had and his dad had for him.”

He called him a great kid with a great attitude.