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Friends stunned by suicide of Dungy's son


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The 6-foot-7 Dungy graduated last spring, then moved to Tampa to attend Hillsborough Community College. He was back at North Central earlier this month to pick up a copy of his high school transcript, Quandt said.

Quandt and Dungy had a brief conversation about the young man's plans for the future. Quandt said Dungy talked about moving on to a four-year college after finishing course work at HCC. He ultimately wanted to work in law enforcement. Quandt said he saw no signs during that conversation that Dungy was having any problems. He described Dungy as friendly and engaging.

Chris Bonner, a former basketball and football teammate of Dungy's who is a freshman football player at Florida Atlantic University, said he couldn't imagine Dungy taking his own life.

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"He didn't seem like he was depressed," Bonner said. "He was an easygoing person. He joked around all the time, and it didn't seem like he had any problems. He was a nice guy to be around. He wasn't a person who boasted about being Tony Dungy's son. In fact, if you didn't ask him, you wouldn't even know Tony Dungy was his dad."

Jamie Gonzalez said Dungy called her this week, and the two made plans to see each other next week.

"I had no idea," she said. "I never have would have thought."

She was shocked at the Internet profile Dungy created a few weeks ago, in which he appears wearing a bandana over his nose and mouth beside text condemning the police. The site contains pictures of handguns, marijuana, Snoop Dog, stacks of cash, gang signs and sexual positions. The heroes he lists include "the D.C. Snipers," Malcolm X and the Black Panthers. It was not accessible by Thursday afternoon.

Gonzalez said she thought the Web site profile was nothing more than a front.

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"I think he was trying to portray himself as being tough, but he was nothing like that," Jamie Gonzalez wrote in an online exchange with a reporter. "Well at least when we went out he wasn't. ... He was extremely sweet!"

Clearwater psychologist Ruth Peters, who reviewed the site at the Tribune's request, said it did not raise red flags about suicide, though it referenced male toughness and marijuana use.

"Certainly he doesn't come across as an Ivy League preppy," Jacobs says, "but I didn't see anything really personal. It's more: 'Here's a black guy living in Tampa.' "

The Dungys still own a house in Avila, an exclusive community in Lutz, not far from Livingston Avenue. Judy Jones, who lives a few doors down, recalls the family taking walks in the evening.

Her son, Wesley, was three years older than Dungy.

"I knew him for a while," he said. "I never saw this happening."



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