University Of Alabama Basketball Player Charged With Murder Of Young Mother

University of Alabama basketball player Darius Miles, 21, has been arrested and charged with capital murder after a deadly shooting near the campus. On Jan. 15, 2023, Jamea Jonae Harris, 23, was allegedly shot and killed by Michael Lynn Davis, 20, while she was sitting in the passenger seat of a car driving along The Strip in Tuscaloosa. Although Miles wasn’t the shooter, he admitted to giving Davis the gun shortly before the killing, according to ABC News.

The driver of the vehicle Harris was in went to police for help. He said that he fired back in self-defense and might have struck a suspect. Through witness statements and surveillance footage, they were able to identify and arrest the suspects. Police said that one of the suspects had been shot and had non-life-threatening injuries.

Both Miles and Davis have been charged with capital murder. They didn’t have a previous relationship with the victim before that evening, reported AP News. In a news conference, Tuscaloosa Police Capt. Jack Kennedy said it appears the shooting was the result of a minor altercation between the victims and the suspects after they encountered each other on The Strip in Tuscaloosa.

DeCarla Cotton, Harris’s grieving mother, said her daughter was loved by all. According to AL.com, Cotton posted to Facebook that Davis “took my baby’s life because she wouldn’t talk to him”.

“She was a beautiful young woman who loved her family and most of all her 5-year-old son Kaine. She was just trying to enjoy her weekend with her cousin that attends the University of Alabama and her boyfriend,” she told AL.com.

Miles has been removed from the University of Alabama campus and is no longer a member of the University of Alabama men’s basketball team.

Both Miles and Davis are being held without bond.