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Ex-Miss Alabama Regrets Calling Dallas Shooter a ‘Martyr'

"I realize I could've used a different word,' Kalyn James said

A South Florida television host and former Miss Alabama is speaking out after making national headlines with a Facebook video in which she called the Dallas shooter a "martyr."

Kalyn James says she was misunderstood when she called Micah Johnson a "martyr" in the Facebook live video in which she described her conflicted feelings over the shooting in Dallas that ended with five officers dead.

"I don't feel sad, for the officers that lost their lives and I know that that's not my heart. I value human life," she said in the video. "I want to feel sad for them but 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."

WPBT2 South Florida PBS station TV host says she's received multiple threats because of her statements and believes many have taken her words out of context.

"I realize I could've used a different word and the context in which I referred to martyr was a person who died for their belief and really that's what I think that he felt, but it wasn't my belief," she told NBC 6.

The former Miss Alabama added in the video she was not surprised by what the shooter did to the officers in Dallas and says many people have been affected by the police-involved deaths of black men.

"A lot of people were affected, not to go and commit murders, but they were affected very deeply and it can start to play with your moral compass and make you question what you're really feeling," James explained. "And that's what I was doing, I was dealing with the guilt of feeling that way."

WPBT2 said it placed James on administrative leave. James did not want to comment on the matter.

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