Jamea Jonae Harris, a 23-year-old mother of one, was allegedly shot and killed by Darius Miles, a basketball player for the University of Alabama, and Michael Lynn Davis, 20. They have been charged with capital murder by the police.
Harris was a passenger in a car near “The Strip,” a neighborhood close to the university’s campus, when the event happened early on Sunday. DeCarla Cotton, the victim’s mother, claims that Harris ignored Miles, who she claims “took [her] baby’s life because she wouldn’t talk to him,”
Cotton took to Facebook to express her devastation as she shared photos of both young men accused of killing her daughter who was visiting at cousin at the university when she was killed. The grieving grandmother also changed her facebook profile picture to photo of her late daughter and her 5-year-old grandson, Kaine.
“She was a beautiful young woman who loved her family and most of all her 5-year-old son Kaine,” Cotton said in an interview with AL.com.
“She was just trying to enjoy her weekend with her cousin that attends the University of Alabama and her boyfriend.”
Harris’s cousin, Kennedi Henderson, described Harris as “a humble soul, and she was always a happy soul,” and someone who “kept the cousins together and pushed us to be the best us.”
According to Tuscaloosa police Capt. Jack Kennedy, the shooting appears to have resulted from a minor argument between the victim and suspects after encountering each other along The Strip. The driver of the car told police he returned fire in self-defense. He also believed that he may have struck one of the suspects.
Darius Miles’ arrest video went viral on social media after the alleged killer sobbed why being apprehended by Alabama police on January 15.