New York Times Amends Previous Reporting After Manager Admits Presence at Deadly Shooting

A student manager for the Alabama basketball team admitted his presence in Brandon Miller's car at the time of the deadly Jamea Harris shooting in January.

Alabama Athletics

On Friday, according to reporting from The New York Times, a basketball student manager has come forward announcing his presence in superstar Brandon Miller's vehicle at the time of the Jan. 15 shooting.

The manager, Cooper Lee, admitted to his presence in Miller's car by way of an email to The New York Times on Friday. 

“I can confirm that I was the passenger in Brandon Miller’s car at the time of the shooting,” Lee said in the email.

The significance of the admission is obvious, as earlier in the week sophomore walk-on Kai Spears officially filed suit against the Times for libel / defamation and false light / invasion of privacy after the Times had previously reported Spears's presence in the vehicle.

Spears admitted to seeing Miller earlier in the evening, but he stated he was already home at the time of the deadly altercation. 

The walk-on's alibi was corroborated in statements made by the University of Alabama and his father, Marshall athletic director Christian Spears.

Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokesperson for The New York Times said the article will be corrected to reflect Cooper's admission.

“We have a longstanding policy of correcting errors,” she said in a statement. “Based on information in the affidavit and new reporting by our newsroom, we believe our original story was not accurate and plan to append an editor’s note to the story.”

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