Livescore
The parents of shooting victim Jamae Jonae Harris, who was shot and killed in the early morning hours on Jan. 15 on the Tuscaloosa Strip near the University of Alabama campus, offered a scathing rebuke of the school’s handling of the shooting after court testimony by police connected Crimson Tide star Brandon Miller to the incident earlier this week. In an interview with USA Today, Harris’ mother, DeCarla Cotton, and stepfather, Delvin Heard, both ripped the school and basketball coach Nate Oats as Miller continued to play despite new revelations.
“It’s just unimaginable, and it’s like his life is just going on,” Cotton said. “He took a brief pause and it didn’t stop. It’s like, OK, slap on the wrist and go play ball.
“They’re worried about his career, but what about this this 5-year-old boy [Harris’ son]? He’s the true victim in all this,” Cotton continued. “He won’t have a mother anymore to influence his growing up and who he’s going to be.”
Former Alabama player Darius Miles and long-time friend Michael Lynn Davis were both charged for capital murder in the killing of Harris. In court testimony, Miles took responsibility for supplying the gun and Davis took responsibility for the shooting. However, in news that came to light this week, Miller was also implicated after bringing Miles’ gun to him at Miles’ request.
Miller has denied wrongdoing through his attorney citing that he never touched the gun, was not involved in the exchange of the gun and did not know illegal activity with the gun would occur. He has not been charged. Miller has continued to play for the Crimson Tide since the shooting and since the new allegations came to light this week, dropping a career-high 41 points Wednesday in an OT win over South Carolina in which he made the go-ahead basket late.
“When somebody says bring a gun to them, what do you think they’re going to do with it?” Cotton asked USA Today. “And if there was no gun, she would not be dead.”
Harris’ stepfather directly criticized Oats and his handling of the situation, calling it “godawful.” Oats faced scrutiny earlier in the week after saying Miller for his part in the incident was simply “at the wrong spot at the wrong time.” Oats later issued a statement apologizing for what he called “unfortunate” remarks. He held a press conference Friday ahead of the team’s game Saturday vs. Arkansas where he defended his and Alabama’s handling of the incident.
“We’ve been taking it very seriously from Day 1,” Oats said. “The first minute that I got the information, I called Greg [Byrne] and we talked about it and the severity of it. Greg I thought did a great job addressing those comments on Wednesday, and I really don’t have much to add to it. … We feel like we’ve done the right thing in this case. So I’m going to leave it at that with Greg’s comments.”
Byrne went on the ESPN College GameDay podcast Wednesday where he defended Alabama’s handling of the situation and made it clear that Miller, unless new information arises, will maintain his eligibility with the Tide.
“The new information we learned was that there had been some text messages exchanged with Brandon and Darius. That information was news to me. I had not been told that before,” he said, adding later: “Collectively, we decided that Brandon was able to play. If we gather new information down the road, then we’ll deal with it at that time.”
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