Jan. 16 (UPI) — Police have arrested and charged two people, including a University of Alabama basketball player, for the early Sunday fatal shooting of a 23-year-old woman.
Capt. Jack Kennedy of the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit told reporters during a Sunday press conference that Crimson Tide junior forward Darius Miles, 21, and Micheal Lynn Davis, 20, of Maryland, were arrested earlier in the day and charged with capital murder for the death of 23-year-old Jonae Harris.
Harris was fatally shot early Sunday.
Police said officers were dispatched to the Walk of Champions out front of Bryant Denny Stadium at about 1:45 a.m. when a vehicle had stopped in search of assistance from an Alabama police cruiser.
Inside the vehicle, police found Harris dead from a gunshot wound. The unnamed driver told police that their vehicle had been shot into, and that someone in the vehicle other than Harris had returned fire.
Investigators later determined that the shooting occurred off university campus in the 400 block of Grace Street known as The Strip.
Kennedy told reporters that the shooting appeared to be over a minor verbal altercation that had occurred between the suspects and the victims.
He also confirmed that one of the two suspects had been shot. He would not say which of the two men had been injured but that they had suffered a non-life-threatening injury, for which they had received medical treatment.
He also said they have identified which of the two suspects had pulled the trigger but would not release that information to the public due to the ongoing investigation.
“Both of them are both charged with capital murder, both being criminally culpable with this young lady’s death,” he said.
“It’s tragic,” he said. “All we can say [is] we work these all the time and they’re a tragedy. I wish that they didn’t happen.”
UA Athletics said in a statement that Miles was no longer with the Alabama men’s basketball team.
“We are grieved by the incident that occurred near campus last night and extend our deepest condolences to the victim’s family and friends,” the University of Alabama said in a statement.
