Alabama basketball manager says he, not the player, was at the fatal shooting (published 2023)

A student manager for the Alabama men’s basketball team said Friday that he was a passenger in the car of star player Brandon Miller during a January shooting in Tuscaloosa. One person was killed and Mr. Miller’s car was struck by stray bullets in the episode, which involved multiple vehicles.

The manager, Cooper Lee, admitted to The New York Times that he was at the scene of the crime after another player, Kai Spears, sued the newspaper this week for reporting in March that Cooper Lee was in Mr. Miller’s car when bullets struck the windshield.

Mr Spears has denied being in the car and said in the lawsuit that being falsely identified as a passenger “will forever be labeled as a person associated with a murder.” The lawsuit, which seeks damages for defamation and invasion of privacy, first revealed that Mr Lee got into Mr Miller’s car at 1:40 a.m. on Jan. 15, just minutes before the shooting.

“I can confirm that I was a passenger in Brandon Miller’s car at the time of the shooting,” Mr. Lee, 21, said in an email to The Times. Mr. Lee, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, declined to comment beyond confirming that Mr. Spears was not in the car. His LinkedIn profile lists him as a hospitality and sports management major at the university.

A spokeswoman for The Times, Danielle Rhoades Ha, said the article would be corrected.

“We have a long-standing policy of correcting errors,” she said in a statement. “Based on information in the affidavit and new reporting by our editorial staff, we believe our original story was inaccurate and plan to add an editorial note to the story.”

Two people have been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting: Darius Miles, who started the season with the team, and his friend Michael Davis, who was accused of firing the fatal shots that killed Jamea Harris, 23, a passenger in a second car. Mr. Miles has pleaded not guilty; Mr. Davis is seeking youthful offender status.

Mr. Miller, who is expected to be a top pick in the NBA draft, and Mr. Lee were not injured or involved in the incident, which occurred as bars along the Strip, a gathering spot near campus along University Boulevard, were emptying.

Ms. Harris’s murder has garnered widespread attention at a time when the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide was among the nation’s best and competing in a national championship. Alabama’s handling of the case has come under intense scrutiny in recent months, as players present at the crime scene continued to suit up for games while authorities investigated.

Two months after the episode, on March 15, The Times reported that Mr. Spears, a freshman walk-on, had been in Mr. Miller’s car at the time of the shooting. The identity of Mr. Miller’s passenger was attributed by The Times to a person familiar with the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

In a brief dressing room interview, Mr Spears said, according to The Times: “I’m sorry, but I can’t talk about that.”

But after the article was published online, Mr. SpearsHis family and the university said the story was inaccurate, and The Times updated the article to reflect their statements.

An Alabama Athletics spokeswoman said at the time that “based on the information we have, there were no current student-athletes present at the scene of the incident, other than Brandon Miller and Jaden Bradley,” a player who was in a third car near the shooting. The university’s athletic director, Greg Byrne, said in a statement that it was not true that Spears was present.

And Mr. Spears’ father, Christian Spears, who serves as athletic director at Marshall University, said in a statement on Marshall’s athletics website that he was “disappointed in the irresponsible and demonstrably false reporting of the NY Times.”

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in a federal court in Alabama, says Spears’ attorneys filed a request for corrections with The Times on March 20, but the newspaper did not honor the request.

Mr. Spears was “falsely featured in national news,” which led to emotional distress because he was associated with a “criminal event,” the complaint said.

The lawsuit produced the first public testimony about Spears’ whereabouts at the time of the shooting, including a sworn statement from a high school friend who was visiting and FaceTime conversations with Bradley, who has since transferred to the University of Arizona.

After Alabama’s Jan. 14 victory over Louisiana State, Mr. Spears went to dinner at a Waffle House with two high school friends from Clemson University. He then returned to his dorm room to get ready for a night out, which included dinner with Mr. Miller at a barbecue restaurant near the Strip, according to the criminal complaint and an affidavit by the friend, Dylan Serafini.

At the barbecue restaurant, Mr. Spears had a FaceTime conversation with Mr. Bradley, who, along with Mr. Miller, asked Mr. Spears and his friends if they wanted to stay. They declined because of the late hour, and Mr. Spears and his high school friends went home while Mr. Miller got into his car with the team manager, Mr. Lee, the complaint said.

Within minutes, Mr. Spears was back on FaceTime with Mr. Miller and Mr. Bradley to ask where they had gone, the complaint said. He then heard shots fired into the windshield of Mr. Miller’s car and that the young men were “panicked.”

“Jaden Bradley was upset and showed Kai Brandon Miller’s windshield with bullet holes on FaceTime and told Kai Spears to call him later,” Mr. Serafini said in his affidavit.

On Friday, Alabama’s athletic department referred to its March statement, in which the athletic director said both Mr. Bradley and Mr. Miller were witnesses and had not been charged with any wrongdoing or violated any university policy.

Julie Tate contributed to research.