The New York Times published a lengthy correction after the news outlet in March misidentified Alabama freshman basketball player Kai Spears as a passenger in a car at the scene of a January shooting that involved members of the Crimson Tide basketball team.

Cooper Lee told The Times in a story published earlier this month he got into Brandon Miller’s car at 1:40 a.m. on Jan. 15, just minutes before Jamea Harris was shot and killed on the Strip in Tuscaloosa.

Lee’s version of events is also included in Spears’ defamation, libel and invasion of privacy under false light lawsuit against the Times, the paper reported.

The suit, filed in Alabama’s Northern district court, states Spears is seeking upwards of $75,000 in damages due to emotional and physical distress.

The Times stood by its reporting even after Spears’ father and Alabama’s athletic director Greg Byrne refuted the initial report.

Here is the correction:

“The original version of this article, published March 15, misidentified the person who was in the car with Brandon Miller when the shooting occurred.

“Based on information from a person familiar with the case, the article erroneously identified that person as Kai Spears, a freshman basketball player. After the article was initially published, Alabama’s athletic director and Spears’s father denied that Spears was present. The Times included those responses and reviewed its reporting, but did not conclude that any other change to the article was warranted at that time.

“On Wednesday, Spears filed a defamation suit against The Times that included new details about the incident. Based on that information, editors assigned further reporting, which determined that the other person at the scene was not Spears but Cooper Lee, a student manager for the team. The Times regrets the error in the initial report.

“This article has been revised to remove the erroneous information.”

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.