Lake Fong, Post-Gazette John Ashaolu of Toronto, brother of Duquesne University shooting victim Sam Ashaolu, reflects on his brother's situation yesterday. Click photo for larger image.

As his index finger repeatedly struck the screen of his laptop computer in a Downtown hotel room, the anger emanating from John Ashaolu was palpable.

"That's her," he said, scanning the MySpace.com profile of Brittany Jones, said by police to be a friend and former high school classmate of a suspect charged with shooting Mr. Ashaolu's brother, Duquesne basketball player Sam Ashaolu.

John Ashaolu, 25, then forced his head into his hands, the emotion still pouring out in angry words. Steve, 31, the oldest of the four Ashaolu brothers was nearby, listening.

Seemingly the only certainty yesterday was that Sam lay in a hospital bed in critical condition at Mercy Hospital. What's known, John said, is that two bullets are in Sam's head, one intact and the other broken into pieces. Other than those few particulars, everything, like the details of the on-campus shooting early Sunday, are foggy at best.

Sam Ashaolu Click photo for larger image.

"It's too soon to say anything more than he's still in critical condition," said Steve, a personal trainer in Toronto. "Sam is not close to being out of the woods. It is day-by-day, hour-by-hour. We really don't know all that much."

Their mother, Christinah, returned to Toronto yesterday to sew up some loose ends left in the wake of her hasty, unplanned trip to Pittsburgh when she got the news Sam had been felled by gunfire. She'll be back in Pittsburgh on Friday, holding vigil by Sam's bedside.

The youngest Ashaolu brother, Olu, is 17 and attends high school in Texas. There were no immediate plans to bring him here. With each cell phone call Olu has made to check on Sam, Steve fights back the emotion; he knows that his voice can't crack or his little brother's fears will heighten.

"It would be too tough right now to bring him here," Steve said. "We can't let Olu see Sam like this. I can't begin to imagine how tough it is for him right now."

That said, redirecting anger into hope has been tough for Steve and John. After all, that's the kid they grew up with lying there in a hospital bed, the brother whose back they had all the time, whose basketball dream was supported by this close-knit family.

"At first, when I got to Pittsburgh to see Sam, I wanted to strangle someone myself," Steve said. "When I went in that [hospital] room and saw my brother lying there with all these tubes attached to him, I wanted retribution, I wanted answers. But when I see him there now, I realize that won't change what happened to him. I just have to be strong.

"We all do."

Since 2001, Sam Ashaolu's globe-trotting path to Division I basketball took him from two Toronto high schools to a Virginia prep school and two junior colleges. Duquesne, his brothers said, was a dream realized, a Division I basketball oasis at the end of a journey.

"Then this happens," Steve said. "Finally, you know, he gets here, he reaches his goal of being a Division I basketball player. And then this?

"None of this makes any sense."