“I can’t stop replaying the image of these men being killed in my mind and my heart weeps, but I think more than anything I’m dealing with a bit of guilt because,” she said, pausing to cry.

“I don’t feel sad for the officers that lost their lives. And I know that that’s really not my heart — I value human life and I want to feel sad for them — but I can’t help but feeling like the shooter was a martyr.”

The comments from James — who in 1993 became the first black woman to win the title of Miss Alabama — sparked backlash and prompted her employer, Miami’s PBS affiliate, to place her on administrative leave.