Roseville, MI — Former Central Michigan University football star
 Zurlon Tipton, who played in the NFL for a season with the
Indianapolis Colts, died Tuesday after accidentally shooting
himself while removing firearms from a vehicle he was about to
have serviced at a southeast Michigan car dealership, police said.
Tipton, a Sterling Heights native, was shot in the stomach about
9:30 a.m. while trying to retrieve the bag containing two guns from
his Jeep Wrangler while it was parked in a service bay at Mike
 Riehl’s Roseville Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM dealership at 25800
Gratiot, according to a news release.
In the release, police said “it is not clear at this time why the subject
felt it necessary to be in possession of two handguns.”
Four employees of the dealership were working nearby, but no one
else was injured in the accident.



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Mark DeMara, the general
manager of the dealership,
 told The Macomb Daily that
after Tipton was shot,
 employee Craig Robertson,
 a retired fire marshal for the
 Roseville Fire Department,
tried to stabilize him until
 rescue workers arrived
 and took over.
“Our management team
 really stepped up in this case and were an immense help,”
DeMara said. “Thankfully, nobody else got hurt. It appeared
 to be an unfortunate accident.”
Tipton, 26, was talking as he was transported to St. John
Hospital and Medical Center, where he died Tuesday
afternoon, police said. Police didn’t release his name
at the time, but WDIV-TV has identified the victim as 
Tipton, who played for the Colts in the 2014-2015 season.
It’s unclear if Tipton was licensed to carry the weapons.
Image credit: Shutterstock