Alabama Basketball Player Threatens Lawsuit Against NY Times For ‘False’ Report About Fatal Shooting

AP Photo/Sam Craft

Alabama freshman walk-on basketball player Kai Spears threatened to take legal action against The New York Times after they reported he was at the scene of a January murder.

Jamea Jonae Harris was killed in mid-January after former Alabama player Darius Miles and Michael Lynn Davis allegedly shot at a car she was riding in near the University of Alabama’s campus.

In February, police told an Alabama grand jury that star player Brandon Miller gave Miles the weapon before the shooting, and he was at the scene, which led to him receiving “lock him up” chants from a South Carolina crowd, and was heavily criticized after he received a “pat down” from a teammate in pregame warmups.

The Times reported that Spears was also at the scene on that deadly night, and Alabama’s athletic department, along with Spears and his family, fought back against the claim.

“Your story is inaccurate,” the university’s athletic department wrote in a statement to the Times on Wednesday. “Based on the information we have, there were no current student-athletes present at the scene other than Brandon Miller and Jaden Bradley, who are both fully cooperating witnesses. From the outset, UA Athletics has fully cooperated with law enforcement and supported their investigation.”

Spears released a statement of his own on Thursday.

“The writer had complete disregard for the truth,” Spears wrote. “I am trying to process and cope with these false statements that somehow have been published and then seen by so many. So thankful to Alabama Athletics for refuting it on my behalf. More than anything… I remain completely heartbroken by the tragic death that occurred that night.”

Christian Spears, Kai’s father and Athletic Director at Marshall University, released his own statement on Thursday, ripping the Times‘ report.

“I am just incredibly disappointed in the irresponsible and demonstrably false reporting by the NY Times,” he wrote. “We are exploring all legal options at this time. I will have no further comment, instead deferring to the University of Alabama’s statement on the matter.”

On behalf of the Spears family, attorney Stephen P. New shared a statement of his own and claims Spears was nowhere near the scene of the murder.

“This irresponsible journalism has harmed Kai and his family, as well as the University of Alabama and Marshall University,” New wrote. “I have reached out to General Counsel for The New York Times, with no response.”

Alabama’s Athletic Director, Steve Byrne, wrote in a statement, “some inaccurate narratives have been reported about the involvement of Alabama student-athletes that display an unfortunate disregard of the facts.”

“We ask all to exercise careful due diligence before reporting on this sensitive situation,” Byrne wrote.

He added that the Alabama Athletic Department “had to address the inaccurate report from last evening.”

Number one seed Alabama beat the 16 seed Texas A&M Corpus Christi 96-75 on Thursday. They will play the number eight seed Maryland on Saturday.