Mother, 23, killed on Strip in Tuscaloosa was ‘beautiful young woman who loved her family’
The young woman shot to death while driving along the Strip in Tuscaloosa was loved by all, according to her grieving mother.
Jamea Jonae Harris, 23, was killed early Sunday.
“She was a beautiful young woman who loved her family and most of all her 5-year-old son Kaine,’’ DeCarla Cotton told AL.com. “She was just trying to enjoy her weekend with her cousin that attends the University of Alabama and her boyfriend.”
Cotton posted this Facebook: “Took my baby’s life because she wouldn’t talk to him.”
“She was a humble soul, and she was always a happy soul,’’ said her first cousin, Kennedi Henderson. “We literally grew up together.”
“She kept the cousins together and pushed us to be the best us,’’ Henderson said. “She was the best little cousin I can ask for, honestly.”
“The family and I are just in disbelief that something like this has happened to her,’’ she said. “We just ask for prayers at this time.”
Jamea Jonae Harris, 23, was shot to death on the Strip in Tuscaloosa. She leaves behind a 5-year-old son, Kaine. (Special to AL.com)
University of Alabama basketball player Darius Miles, 21, is one of two suspects charged with capital murder in Harris’s slaying. The second suspect has been identified as 20-year-old Michael Lynn Davis, of Maryland.
At about 1:45 a.m. Sunday, Tuscaloosa police and University of Alabama police were dispatched to the Walk of Champions at Bryant Denny Stadium on a shooting.
A vehicle had stopped there upon sighting a University of Alabama Police vehicle.
Harris was dead inside the vehicle, said Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Capt. Jack Kennedy. The driver, who has not been identified, told police their vehicle had been struck by gunfire. The driver said he had returned fire in self-defense and may have struck a suspect.
Investigators determined that the shooting happened in the 400 Block of Grace Street off University Boulevard.
Kennedy said after speaking with multiple witnesses and viewing video surveillance, they identified two suspects. Both were located and interviewed.
One suspect was found to have indeed been struck by gunfire, Kennedy said, and had a non-life-threatening wound.
“It appears at this time that the shooting was the result of a minor argument that occurred between the victims and suspects after they encountered each other along the strip,’’ Kennedy said.