MIAMI – The first black Miss Alabama said Wednesday she regrets using the word "martyr" to describe the Dallas police shooter and told Local 10 News that she doesn't condone his actions.
Kalyn Chapman James, who was crowned in 1993 and now lives in South Florida, posted a video on her Facebook page in which she expressed her frustration with the recent police-involved shootings of black men.
"I can't stop replaying the images of these men being killed in my mind, and my heart weeps," James said. "But I think more than anything, I'm dealing with a bit of guilt because I don't feel sad for the officers that lost their lives, and I know that that's really not my heart."
James, who is black, said she values human life and wanted to feel sad for the officers.
"I can't help but feeling like the shooter was a martyr, and I know it's not the right way to feel because nobody deserves to lose their lives," James said. "And I know that those police officers had families and people who loved them and that they didn't deserve to die."
James told Local 10's Michael Seiden that she regrets her choice of words "because it offended people and made them think that I was somehow, I was celebrating this shooter, you know, or some way condoning what he did."
She said she's received death threats "that people hope I'm the next martyr."
"He's not a martyr in my eyes," James explained. "The context in which I meant it was really more that I couldn't help but see him as, you know, the kind of person that sees himself as a martyr. But he's not a martyr to me. He's not a hero to me."
James was suspended from her job at WPBT2 South Florida PBS after posting the video. She said others who shared her pain have called her employer to say that they support her.
She made it clear that she doesn't support the gunman's actions and has respect for all human life, including police officers.
"I never want anyone to take the law into their own hands," James said.
Five police officers were killed in Thursday's shooting in Dallas.