|
Listen now
|
Alabama basketball star Darius Miles wept as he was perp-walked to a police car after being charged with capital murder on Sunday.
Miles, 23, was caught on camera as he was led out of Tuscaloosa County Jail in handcuffs, calling out ‘I swear I love you more than you can imagine’ as he was loaded into a waiting cop car.
Tuscaloosa Police Captain Jack Kennedy said that the shooting occurred early Sunday morning in the Strip off University Blvd, near campus. He said Jamea Harris, 23, of the Birmingham area was shot and killed.
The capital murder charge arose because the death involved shots fired into a vehicle, Kennedy added.
‘At this time, it appears that the only motive was a minor altercation that these individuals had with the victim as they were out on The Strip,’ Kennedy said in a news conference Sunday evening. They didn’t have a previous relationship, he said.
He said the driver of another vehicle, in which Harris was a passenger, approached campus police near Bryant-Denny Stadium at about 1:45 a.m. saying that someone had shot into the vehicle, and he fired back.
The driver said that his return fire was in self defense and that he may have struck a suspect, who was then treated for non-life-threatening injuries at a local hospital.
According to AL.com, the shooting happened in the 400 Block of Grace Street off of University Boulevard, close to Bryant-Denny Stadium, where the Crimson Tide football team play in front of 100,000 fans.
Police chief Kennedy told reporters that after speaking to multiple witnesses and viewing video surveillance, they identified two suspects who were then located and interviewed, before being charged.
Miles was a reserve on the fourth-ranked Crimson Tide team. Alabama had announced before Saturday’s game against LSU that he was out for the season with an ankle injury.
His bio has since been removed from the athletic department website and the university said that he ‘has been removed from campus’ and is no longer on the team.
‘The University of Alabama’s utmost priority is the safety and well-being of the campus community,’ a university statement said. ‘We are grieved by the incident that occurred near campus last night and extend our deepest condolences to the victim’s family and friends.’
Neither the driver of the other vehicle nor Harris nor Davis appeared to be affiliated with the university, Kennedy said.