By A Correspondent- A long-time Nike executive in the US has revealed that he shot and killed a teenage boy in the streets of West Philadelphia 56 years ago.

Larry Miller, chairman of the Jordan Brand, spoke about the 1965 murder in an interview with Sports Illustrated.

“It was eating me up inside,” he said of his actions at age 16, when he was “a straight-up gangbanger”.

Mr Miller served a jail sentence for the murder. He says he did not lie about it, but he did keep it secret.

The admission comes ahead of the launch of his memoir next year.

Mr Miller said he had joined the Cedar Avenue gang in West Philadelphia at age 13, quickly changing from “a straight-A student” and drinking every day.

When a friend was killed by a rival gang member, Mr Miller, then just 16, says he grabbed a .38 handgun, got drunk with three friends and went in search of retribution.

Instead, on 30 September 1965, he fired into the chest of the first person they encountered: 18-year-old Edward White.

He said:

That’s what makes it even more difficult for me, because it was for no reason at all.

Mr Miller described the decision to come clean about his past – which he has long hidden from his children, friends and closest business associates – as “really difficult”. He told Sports Illustrated:

Because for years, I ran from this. I tried to hide this and hope that people didn’t find out about it.

Mr Miller has been at Nike since 1997 and manages the daily operations of Nike Basketball, the Jordan Brand and Converse.

Mr Miller says he hopes his story can help steer at-risk youth away from a life of violence and inspire formerly incarcerated people to know they can still make a contribution to society