Free's ex-girlfriend slain in shooting

BROOKLYN, N.Y., Dec. 7 (UPI) -- The former girlfriend of ex-NBA star World B. Free has been slain in a Brooklyn, N.Y., shooting incident, police and relatives say.

Stunned family members of Audrey Johnson, 51, said she was shot on the street Sunday night while her niece's boyfriend was being accosted by armed men, the New York Daily News reported.

"She's just an innocent victim of gun violence," brother Kenny Johnson, 47, told the newspaper. "She was a beautiful person."

Family members said Audrey Johnson was shot after two men attacked Laquan Williams, 25, whose girlfriend is Johnson's niece, outside the family's home in Brooklyn. The Daily News said Williams has a long arrest record and was being questioned by New York Police detectives.

World B. Free, an NBA all-star known for his soaring slam-dunks, grew up in Brooklyn as Lloyd Free and was a star for the Philadelphia 76ers, for whom he still works as a goodwill ambassador for the team, the newspaper said.

He legally changed his name to World B. Free in 1980.