The student manager of the Alabama men’s basketball team said Friday that he was in star player Brandon Miller’s car during the shooting in Tuscaloosa in January. Multiple vehicles were involved in the episode, one person was killed, and Mr. Miller’s car was hit by a stray bullet.
Manager Cooper Lee sued the newspaper this week after fellow player Kai Spears filed a report that he was in Miller’s car when he was hit by the windshield in March. He admitted to being at the scene of the crime. bullet.
Spears, who denied having been in the car, said in the lawsuit that pretending to be a passenger “will forever be labeled as someone involved in the murder.” The lawsuit, which is seeking damages for defamation and invasion of privacy, first revealed that Lee got into Miller’s car at 1:40 a.m. on Jan. 15, minutes before the shooting.
“I can confirm that I was in Brandon Miller’s car at the time of the shooting,” Lee, 21, told The Times in an email. Mr. Lee has not been accused of wrongdoing but declined to comment beyond confirming Mr. Spears was not in the car. His LinkedIn profile states that he majored in hospitality and sports management in college.
Times spokesman Daniel Rose Ha said the article would be corrected.
“We have a long-standing policy of righting wrongs,” she said in a statement. “Based on the information in the affidavit and new reporting by Newsroom, we believe the original article was inaccurate and will add an editor’s note to the article.”
Two people have been charged with heinous murder resulting from the shooting. Darius Miles, who started the season with the team, and friend Michael Davis, who has been charged with firing a fatal bullet that instantly killed passenger Jamia Harris, 23. car. Miles pleaded not guilty. Davis is seeking status as a juvenile offender.
Miller and Lee, likely top picks in the NBA Draft, were unharmed and involved in an incident that occurred as bars emptied along the Strip, a gathering place near the campus on University Boulevard. not
Harris’ murder drew widespread attention at a time when the University of Alabama team, the Crimson Tide, was vying for the national championship among the nation’s top teams. Alabama’s handling of the incident has been under close scrutiny in the months since, as players at the scene continued to wear suits to the game during the official investigation.
Two months after the incident, on March 15, The Times reported that freshman Spears was in Miller’s car during the shooting. The Times said the identity of Miller’s passenger was attributed to a person familiar with the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential matters.
In a brief locker room interview at the time, Spears said, “Sorry, I can’t talk about that,” The Times reports.
However, after this article was published online, Mr. Spearshis family and university said the account was inaccurate, and The Times updated the article to reflect their statements.
A spokeswoman for the Alabama State Track and Field Department said at the time: “According to the information we have, there are no active student athletes besides Brandon Miller and Jaden Bradley, who was in the third car near the shooting site. I wasn’t there,” he said. In a statement, Greg Byrne, the university’s athletic director, said it was not true that Spears was present.
Spears’ father, Christian Spears, who works as athletic director at Marshall University, said in a statement: On the Marshall Athletic website He said he was “disappointed by the irresponsible and blatantly false reporting by the New York Times.”
In the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Alabama on Wednesday, Mr. Spears’ attorneys said they asked The Times to retract it on March 20, but the Times did not grant the request.
The complaint alleges that Mr. Spears was “unfairly shoved into the national news” and subjected to emotional distress for being associated with “criminal events.”
The lawsuit reveals the first public documents regarding Spears’ whereabouts during the shooting, including affidavits from visiting high school friends and a FaceTime video call exchange with Bradley, who transferred to the University of Arizona. Became.
After Alabama’s victory over Louisiana State on Jan. 14, Spears dined at Waffle House with two high school friends visiting from Clemson University before returning to his dorm to prepare for a night out. . That included meeting with Mr. Miller at the university. It was at a barbecue restaurant near the Strip, according to the complaint and an affidavit from his friend Dylan Serafini.
While eating at the barbecue restaurant, Spears had a FaceTime call with Bradley, who along with Miller asked Spears and her friends if they would like to sleep over. They declined because it was late, and Mr. Spears and his high school friend went home while Mr. Miller got in the car with team manager Mr. Lee, according to the complaint.
Within minutes, Spears returned to FaceTime with Miller and Bradley and asked where they ended up, according to the complaint. That’s when I learned that the young people were going “crazy” after a shot was fired through the windshield of Mr. Miller’s car.
“Jaden Bradley was upset and showed Kai on FaceTime that there was a bullet mark on Brandon Miller’s windshield and told Kai Spears he had to call him later,” Serafini said. said in a statement.
On Friday, the Alabama State Athletic Department cites a statement made in March that said both Bradley and Miller were co-witnesses and were not charged with any crime or violated university policy. bottom.
Julie Tate Contributed to research.
