Alabama AD calls report of fourth basketball player involved in deadly shooting 'untrue'

University of Alabama director of athletics Greg Byrne is disputing a New York Times report that identifies a fourth basketball player at the scene of a fatal shooting in January near the school's Tuscaloosa campus.

"Last night, an inaccurate report was published about Kai Spears, one of our student-athletes, being present at the time of the incident. This is untrue," Byrne said in a statement shared to Twitter Thursday. "Some inaccurate narratives have been reported …that display an unfortunate disregard of the facts. We ask all to exercise careful due diligence before reporting on this sensitive situation."

Surveillance video showed two players were in a car hit in the crossfire that killed 23-year-old Jamea Harris. School and law enforcement authorities have acknowledged star forward Brandon Miller was one of the players. The Times reported on Thursday that freshman walk-on Spears was also in the car with Miller.

Marshall University's athletic director Christian Spears, the father of Spears, issued a statement on Thursday, calling the Times report "irresponsible and demonstrably false," and said he was exploring legal action against the newspaper.

Kai Spears also called the report "100% inaccurate" in an Instagram post Thursday afternoon.

The Alabama athletic department denounced the Times report in a statement of its own: "Your story is inaccurate. Based on the information we have, there were no current student-athletes present at the scene other than Brandon Miller and Jaden Bradley, who are both fully cooperating witnesses. From the outset, UA Athletics has fully cooperated with law enforcement and supported their investigation."

Two people, former Crimson Tide player Darius Miles and his childhood friend, Michael Davis, have been charged with capital murder in the incident. Miles is accused of providing the gun used in the shooting and Davis is accused of firing the fatal bullet.

The school has been criticized for continuing to allow Miller to play despite his involvement in the shooting incident. Top-seeded Alabama opens this year's NCAA Tournament against Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alabama AD: Report over fourth player involved in shooting 'untrue'