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University of New Mexico football recruit Ervin "Una" Smiley is living his worst nightmare.

His family is terrified and wants answers.

Smiley was shot multiples times in the legs early Dec. 9 while leaving a strip club with three members of the UNM football team hosting him during his official recruiting visit, according to Albuquerque police.

Now Smiley says he is trying not to panic over the prospect of never playing football again.

He has declined to speak about the shooting, only saying it was a freak accident.

The consequences, however, are inescapable.

"I can't feel my right leg because the bullet hit a nerve and there are two bullets stuck in my other leg," Smiley said in phone interview with the Tribune from San Diego on Friday night.

"I'm really scared right now. I'm just praying there's a light at the end of the tunnel and I can play football again."

The trouble began when Smiley, an offensive lineman at Palomar College in San Marcos, Calif., was visiting Albuquerque during a recruiting visit. He was being escorted by UNM reserve tight end Clayton Cardenas, reserve linebacker Justin Clayton and starting linebacker Michael Tuohy.

The Albuquerque Police Department incident report included the following details about the shooting:

The athletes were at the Spearmint Rhino Gentlemen's Club at 1645 University Blvd. N.E., about 2 a.m. when they got into an argument with two men inside the club.

Smiley and the Lobos were getting into Cardenas' SUV when one of the men began firing at the vehicle.

The athletes headed south on University Boulevard and stopped at a red light at Indian School Road. The two men and two women followed in an 1980s model, dark-colored SUV and fired more shots at the athletes' SUV.

Police estimate 17 shots were fired at the vehicle.

The football players headed to UNM Hospital, where Smiley was treated for several gunshot wounds to the leg and Cardenas was treated for glass that bruised his eye. No one else in the SUV was injured.

The officer who interviewed Smiley, who is 20, said the recruit appeared to be intoxicated.

The report did not include details about what caused the argument.

Police got a description of the two unidentified men involved in the altercation and images of them from the strip club's security cameras. Officers are seeking help identifying the suspects.

"This was a very violent crime that had a potential to be multiple homicides," Albuquerque police chief Ray Schultz said during a news conference Thursday. "This is one of those crimes that we cannot tolerate."

UNM football coach Rocky Long said a coach and team trainers were by Smiley's side during his two-day hospital stay. An assistant coach accompanied Smiley back to Palomar College on Monday.

Long suspended Cardenas, Clayton and Tuohy from the team and the players will not participate in the New Mexico Bowl on Dec. 23. Clayton is a senior, but Long said he will decide at the beginning of the spring semester whether Cardenas and Tuohy will be allowed to return to the team.

Long said the players violated Athletics Department rules when they took the recruit to a venue where alcohol was being served.

He said he waited a week to suspend the players from practice because he wanted to hear more details from Albuquerque police.

"I needed to confirm exactly what they did wrong before making a decision," he said. "As soon as I had gathered the facts, I suspended them. They made a big mistake here, and I can't say enough how grateful I am no one was hurt much worse."

Smiley and his family aren't feeling grateful.

Janice Smiley, Una's mother, reached at her home in Honolulu, said she was stunned to learn her son had been shot during his recruiting visit.

"I thought I was going to have a heart attack," she said. "I was afraid he was going to die out there all alone. It was a terrible and very scary feeling. I just couldn't believe he was going through something like that all by himself."

Janice Smiley suffers from a severe stutter, so she asked her brother, Vincent Rosa, in Monterey, Calif., to get more information about her son.

"I felt completely helpless," she said. "My stutter gets worse when I'm upset and no one could understand me."

Rosa said in a phone interview he was frustrated because he couldn't get any information about his nephew.

"All everyone would tell was that we're going to take care of him," Rosa said. "I wanted them to fly him (to Monterey), but they sent him back down to school in San Diego instead. He's very quiet and scared. We haven't pushed him to tell us more about what happened, but we couldn't even get anyone in New Mexico to send us a police report."

Una Smiley said he is praying this isn't the final chapter of his football career.

Smiley says playing football helped steer him away from a life as a juvenile delinquent.

He didn't take up the sport until his junior year at Moanalua High in Honolulu.

"My family was on welfare, my mom had some health problems and I was a mess," Una Smiley said. "Everyone thought my life was over."

Arnold Martinez took over as the football coach at Smiley's high school and urged the 6-foot-5 Smiley to join his team.

"We butted heads a lot, but he was the only person who believed in and pushed me to be better," he said. "Once I started with football, I loved it. I got my grades up and graduated. Then my coach made some calls for me and helped me get to junior college. I love football so much, it kept me out of trouble. It gave me a future no one thought was possible."

Una Smiley, Janice Smiley and Rosa all said they have not considered filing a lawsuit against UNM following the shooting.

"I just want my son to get better," Janice Smiley said. "I just pray that he can get back to normal."

Una Smiley just finished a strong sophomore season at Palomar College and already made official recruiting visits to Oregon and San Diego State. He was named a second-team J.C. GridWire All-American.

UNM is still offering Smiley a scholarship, but he said it would be tough returning to Albuquerque.

"I have a lot of rage and a lot of anger in me right now," Smiley said. "I can't imagine going back there without going out and looking for the guys who did this to me."

Smiley admits he may have to seriously consider UNM's offer because the injuries he suffered during the shooting will likely scare off other schools from recruiting him.

"New Mexico might be my only option," he said. "Who knows? I could end up back there after all. I can't give up on football when it's already saved my life so many times before.

"Right now, all that matters to me is that I play football again."