By JIM BUTLER

Helping or harboring? The ultimate answer is key to JT Lindsey’s future, football or otherwise.

Lindsey, a coveted running back out of Alexandria Senior High, is accused of being an accessory after the fact to second-degree murder by allowing two friends/fugitives to hide in his LSU housing.

Instead of repetitions learning his role as a heralded freshman this month he is suspended while the case is open. Through his attorney, Lindsey, 18, asserts he was only trying to help Keldrick Jordan, 18, and Shemell Jacobs, 17, with a place to stay and had no knowledge of them being wanted on murder charges.

The state claims otherwise in its felony arrest warrant, saying Lindsey told acquaintances of the situation.

The accused killers allegedly shot Corey Brooks, 17, and two others in an ill-fated armed robbery attempt on the afternoon of May 21. Brooks died the next day.

A week later a suspect was arrested and police appealed for whereabouts information regarding Jordan and Jacobs.

The shooting happened on Clark Street, about a block from the fugitives’ residences.

Authorities have yet to comment on circumstances regarding the incident or identify the other two victims.

Lindsey graduated two days before the shooting, with a whirlwind summer ahead before reporting to Baton Rouge.

Was he aware of the killing and suspects search? Or out of touch with hometown matters?

Teens have their own telegraph. What, if anything, was it telling Lindsey about the murder of an ASH student?

At one point authorities seem convinced the fugitives were in the Lafayette area. The trail went cold and the search became Page 2 news.

That changed when an arrest warrant, claiming Lindsey had spoken with others about the matter, was issued and “Quick Six” turned himself in.

The fugitives are being held in Rapides lockup under $3 million bond. Lindsey posted $5,000 bond in Baton Rouge.