North Carolina’s top safety official has appealed to the public and the media not to rush to judgment over the fatal shooting of a deaf driver by a Highway Patrol trooper until an investigation is completed.
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“The police need to become aware of how to communicate with deaf people, what that might look like and how to avoid situations like this from ever happening again”, Daniel’s brother, Sam Harris told WSOC during a vigil on August 22.
Authorities have released few details about the shooting, including why Trooper Jermaine Saunders fired at the end of the 10-mile chase that started about 6:15 p.m. August 18 when Harris did not pull over as Saunders, with blue lights on, tried to stop him for speeding on Interstate 485 near Charlotte.
“My brother is going to be a hero”, Sam Harris said.
Saunders has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure.
A statement from the state highway patrol said: “The driver exited his vehicle and an encounter took place between the driver and the trooper causing a shot to be fired”.
Saunders made several unsuccessful attempts to pull Harris’s Volvo over on Interstate 385 for speeding, police said.
The victim’s family said Mr Harris likely didn’t understand the officer’s commands.
They plan on creating a foundation in Daniel’s name to provide better training for law enforcement about interacting with deaf people, and to change the law to require deaf drivers to have a designation on their license plates, alerting police who may pull them over.
Daniel Harris’ survivors include parents Jacqueline Schwartz Harris of Charlotte and Kevin Harris of East Longmeadow, Mass.; two sisters; three brothers; a 3-year-old son, Jairo Daniel Harris; and the mother of his child, Agnieszka Skrzypek of Westfield, Mass.
There was an “encounter” with the officer where a shot was sacked, the statement said.
“You don’t see deafness the way that you see the difference in race”. Sam Harris described his brother as amusing and sociable, explaining that people enjoyed his company and unique personality.
Also in Denver, Harris had traffic stops in 2015 and 2008. And Chief Executive Howard Rosenblum of the National Association of the Deaf said too many violent interactions occur; his organization doesn’t keep records on the cases.
He was arrested twice in Florida in 2010 – once for petit theft and once for speeding. The petit theft charge is a misdemeanor involving property valued at less than $300.
And in December of that same year, he pleaded guilty to interfering with or resisting police in Watertown, Connecticut.
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In the wake of the shooting, the family launched a YouCaring page to help raise money for the cremation process. The family of Harris said he was unarmed and suggested the sequence of events was a tragic misunderstanding ¿ the type the state’s training manual warns troopers to avoid.
