clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Video: Kenny Miles was not robbed in shooting, according to sheriff

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott announced that some of the information that Kenny Miles provided about his shooting has proven to be untrue.

Rob Foldy-US PRESSWIRE

Kenny Miles told police that he was robbed of a watch and a ring during the shooting that resulted in him being admitted to Palmetto Richland Memorial Hospital on Monday. According to Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, Miles' initial claim that he was robbed is untrue. The only thing known with any certainty at this point is that Kenny was shot. Lott added that Miles is not currently being charged with any crime even though it appears he may have committed one by giving false information to the police.

SportsTalk reported on Monday that Miles had initially asked that the police not be called. With that information, it was not difficult to infer that this story might take a turn down this path.

The word "involved" can be interpreted in a number of ways, some of which are relatively innocuous. SportsTalk's source would not specify in what capacity drugs were involved.

It could simply be the case that Miles had drugs in his system or on his person and did not wish to further complicate his having been shot and needing immediate medical attention with a drug charge and/or a dent in his heretofore unimpeachable reputation. If this, or something similar, prove to be what happened, I don't think there's any need to dramatically reevaluate the high esteem in which we hold Kenny Miles. (Other than the fact that a guy with a B.A. in Criminal Justice ought to know better than to file a false police report. Then again, I've never been called upon to make important decisions immediately after suffering a gunshot wound.)

It is, after all, what we know or think we know about Kenny Miles -- the great teammate, the model student-athlete, and overall excellent human being -- that made his injury so uniquely upsetting and his decision to give apparently false information to the police (and his still-unknown motives for giving it) so difficult to comprehend.

However, if "involved" means not just that drugs were present when the shooting occurred but that they were somehow the motive for the shooting, the situation becomes much more concerning. There's also the troubling question of what Kenny Miles did to provoke someone to pull out a gun and fire it at him.

But, for now, there's too much evidence of Kenny being a great person for us to be feeling anything other than joy and relief over the news that he is out of the hospital and in good health.