Last Saturday the HAMPTON ROADS DAILY PRESS reported that a former childhood friend of Michael Vick, Quanis Phillips, was identified as being shot in the leg outside of Vick’s 30th birthday party late last Thursday night at a restaurant in the Virginia Beach area.

(Police: Vick birthday party shooter drove white Escalade (not pictured))

Phillips, who was admitted to the hospital after the shooting, was a co-defendant in the dogfighting case that landed Vick in federal prison for 18 months.

Shalamar Davis, who attended the party, told the Daily Press that Phillips was the shooting victim. “His friends were dragging him around the corner and blood was everywhere,” she said.

So far other witnesses to the shooting have “refused to talk” and Michael Vick’s lawyer has said his client was “long gone” from the scene before the shooting occured. The NFL quarterback has since been interviewed by police on the matter and reportedly is not a suspect in the criminal investigation.

Police though have not exonerated Vick’s brother Marcus, who was also at the party.

From ESPN.com:

Vick and his brother, Marcus, booked the party at Guadalajara restaurant, Fabijan told ESPN. Michael and Marcus’ cut was the admission price at the door ($30 general admission, $50 for VIP access). Vick and Marcus had to reimburse Guadalajara for providing the venue, the serving staff and cleanup. Fabijan would not say how much money was made that night.

Vick arrived at 1 a.m. and Vick’s birthday cake was served between 1:30 a.m.-1:45 a.m., Fabijan told ESPN. Vick left shortly after 2 a.m., Marcus stayed inside the restaurant to settle up the tab.

Police have so far described the suspected shooter as “a black male wearing a white tank top and driving a white Cadillac Escalade.”

In a 2005 profile of Marcus Vick by Bruce Feldman of ESPN.com when the younger Vick was still at Virginia tech, Feldman reported:

Michael says he loves his brother to no end. And that was part of the problem-he spoiled Marcus. Michael bought Marcus an Escalade for his 18th birthday, and when Marcus’ license was taken away, Michael hired him a driver.

On May 16, 2004, Norm Wood of the same Hampton Roads Daily Press that reported on the Michael Vick birthday party shooting reported of Marcus Vick:

The girls were planning to have a slumber party after the game — until Vick called. She said they sneaked out of a window of her friend’s parents’ house and Vick and Hill picked them up near midnight in Vick’s white Cadillac Escalade on the side of Route 114.

Wood’s report involving Marcus Vick was part of coverage of a 2004 trial involving the former Virginia Tech quarterback in which Vick was found guilty of, “three misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, stemming from a Jan. 27 incident involving three teenage girls at Vick and Hill’s apartment in Blacksburg.”

I talked to a longtime Virginia Tech media source today who confirmed that the Escalade Marcus Vick received from his brother for his birthday in 2002 was the same white Escalade cited by Wood in his 2004 trial report. (Marcus Vick was very high profile in driving the vehicle around campus while he was living in Blacksburg.)

Gregg Rosenthal of Pro Football Talk reported Wednesday afternoon that there may be a break in the Michael Vick birthday party shooting case soon:

Adam Schefter of ESPN and Tipped Off said on NFL Live on Wednesday to “look for the shooter to turn himself in sometime soon” to authorities.

As the police suspect the shooter was driving a white Escalade, it goes without saying that a check of the registration of the vehicle could lead authorities to the culprit. Though we may already have a pretty good idea of who that culprit is.