Daniel Harris was fatally shot by a state trooper in North Carolina on Thursday night, authorities said.
The incident happened in Charlotte, after a driver failed to stop when a trooper tried to pull him over for speeding, according to the State Highway Patrol. A short pursuit ensued. Then the driver, later identified by another agency as Harris, got out of his car.
That is when an “encounter took place between the driver and the trooper causing a shot to be fired,” the highway patrol said in a news release.
“It was surreal, you just don’t expect to see something like that,” one man, Mark Barringer, told WCNC. “When the gunshot went off, really, it just was scary.”
In the wake of Harris’s death, his family has noted that Harris was deaf and suggested that the fatal interaction may not have unfolded that way had the trooper known this.
“If the officer had known that he was deaf, it would have ended differently,” his brother, Sam Harris, who is also reported to be deaf, said through an interpreter. “And he would still be around with family, and life would be going on. He’d be happy.”
An important thing to note here: It is too soon to say exactly what the state trooper, identified as Jermaine Saunders, did know, though authorities are investigating the shooting.
“Any loss of life regardless of the circumstances is truly a tragic and sad event for all involved. Let us all refrain from making assumptions or drawing conclusions prior to the internal and independent reviews,” Department of Public Safety Secretary Frank L. Perry said in a statement issued Tuesday, and obtained by the News & Observer. “While the Highway Patrol, the State Bureau of investigation and the District Attorney’s Office conduct their respective reviews, we are keeping all those affected by this tragedy in our thoughts and prayers.”
Audria Bridges, a special agent in charge of the State Bureau of Investigation’s Southern Piedmont district, told The Washington Post in an email Tuesday that officials were still in the process of interviewing Saunders, who has been placed on administrative leave.
Bridges noted, however, that it was unlikely that Saunders knew Harris was deaf, unless there was some type of notification with the vehicle registration. She wrote that authorities were reviewing the call detail of the pursuit to see if that was the case.
The State Bureau of Investigation is conducting a criminal investigation in the shooting, Bridges said. A separate internal investigation is ongoing in the State Highway Patrol.
The shooting comes at a time of increased tensions between law enforcement and members of the communities they serve, and as many across the nation are questioning the use of force in police work.
After Harris’s death, the National Association of the Deaf called for “intensive training” that could help law enforcement officers interact with those who have hearing impairments.
“There have been too many incidents with tragic consequences between law enforcement officers and deaf people,” Howard Rosenblum, CEO of the NAD, said in a statement. “Too often, officers make verbal orders for individuals to comply and act aggressively when those individuals do not comply. Deaf individuals often are unable to understand the verbal commands of law enforcement officers, and this has led to many physical altercations between law enforcement officers and deaf individuals over the years, with some resulting in death.”
The statement continued:
“The NAD urges all law enforcement agencies to provide intensive training to its officers on recognizing when individuals may be deaf or hard of hearing or may have disabilities, and develop appropriate techniques in all possible situations on how to deal with such individuals. Further, there should be law enforcement officers who are trained to communicate in American Sign Language available to assist in all situations involving deaf and hard of hearing individuals. Trainings of law enforcement officers should include people who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as people with disabilities.”
More than 600 people have been fatally shot by members of law enforcement this year, according to a Washington Post database.
In interviews with local stations, Sam Harris remembered his brother as effervescent and funny, a unique person whom others liked being around.
“Oh, he was a handsome man,” Sam Harris told WCNC through an interpreter. “He had a beautiful smile.”
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Sarah Larimer
