Dalvin Cook’s uncle, who is younger than him and was like a brother to him, remains in an induced coma after being shot through the neck and throat, the Minnesota Vikings star running back said Friday.

Anthony Jones, a Florida International University running back who was raised in the same house with Cook, was one of two players shot Thursday afternoon in Opa-locka, Fla. The other victim, Mershawn Miller, is Cook’s cousin, he said, and was shot in the arm. Jones was airlifted to the hospital and Miller has now been released.

“I stayed with my grandmother all my life, which is his mother,” Cook told Viking Update after Friday’s practice. “It’s just been me and him all our life. That’s all we know.”

Cook found out about the shooting shortly he finished practice with the Vikings on Thursday.

“I was in practice yesterday having a great practice, having fun,” he said. “I came off the field. I had a lot of phone calls … by the time I got my phone, [Vikings head athletic trainer Eric Sugarman] had walked up on me and he broke me the news. That’s when all the phone calls and all the text messages [were seen].”

Cook said he talked to Vikings general manager Rick Spielman, head coach Mike Zimmer and running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu about the situation. They told him he could handle the next few days however he wanted to, but Cook wants to play in Sunday’s regular-season opener at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis against the San Francisco 49ers and “for sure” use his concern for his uncle as inspiration.

“I’m going to play this one out for him. Probably next week I’ll probably go home. If he’s still how he is right now, I’ll go home and check on him,” Cook said.

“It’s just been me and him all our lives. We’re all we know. I know he’s looking for me.”

Cook was told Jones should make a full recovery, but the coma was induced to help with his breathing after the bullet entered from the neck and back and came out “through his throat, through his face,” Cook said.

Police described the shooting as a drive-by, according to the Associated Press, and Cook said it may have been a case of “wrong time, wrong place” for his younger relatives.

“They both went back because my little cousin – the one that’s not in the hospital, he got shot in the arm – he left something at the house and then went back to go get something … and that’s when it happened,” Cook said.

Jones didn’t play for FIU last year because of an injury, but in his season opener last week, he scored two touchdowns in a 10-point loss to the Indiana. Miller is a redshirt freshman.

Doctors hope to have Jones out of the induced coma sometime next week, Cook said.

“His breathing is the main thing because the bullet, how it came out, and how it traveled through, it hit his throat and he can’t really breath so right now it’s really his breathing,” he said. “They’ve got the tube down his throat to make him breath. Just an unfortunate situation.”

Some of Cook’s teammates knew about the incident on Friday, but he hasn’t made a point to tell them about it.

“It’s game week. I don’t want to rile everybody up too much,” he said. “They’ll probably find out; it’s been hitting the news a lot, so they’ll probably find out. I’ve just been trying to deal with it with me and my family like that.”

Fellow running back Latavius Murray, who worked into a starting role last year after Cook’s rookie season was ended with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, said teammates support each other however they can when family situations arise.

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“I think you just be there for him. You just support him. You listen if he wants to talk. If he doesn’t want to talk, you don’t say anything and just be there in his presence,” Murray said. “Obviously, at this time, here we are just a few days before the game. You just be there for him, however way he wants. You can never be prepared for such sudden situations or things that happen. As a teammate, as a friend most importantly, you just be there for him any way you can.

“Obviously, as it would for anyone, it’s a hard pill to swallow, but that hasn’t changed how he goes about his business on the field. I think personally if he’s going to deal with it the way that he best knows how, I have no doubt that come Sunday – as I’ve seen in practice today – it won’t affect his play an any way.”

According to the Associated Press, police found more than a dozen bullet casing on the scene. Cook said police haven’t found the shooter or shooters, but they have at least a description of the car.