CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As the family of a deaf man shot by a state trooper prepares for the 29-year-old's funeral Tuesday, state officials say they are conducting a criminal investigation into the man's death.
Trooper Jermaine Saunders had chased Daniel Harris nearly 10 miles to the front door of his home in Charlotte's University City neighborhood after trying to stop him for speeding Thursday on Interstate 485. When Harris got out of his car, North Carolina State Highway Patrol officials said he and Saunders had some sort of altercation.
"It was surreal. You just don't expect to see something like that," said neighbor Mark Barringer, who witnessed the encounter. "When the gunshot went off, it was scary."
Saunders fired one shot, and Harris died in the middle of the street.
Harris likely was trying to communicate with the trooper using sign language, neighbors said. They contended that Saunders should havebeen trained to recognize that, and the officer needed to know how to deescalate the situation.
"You're pulling someone over who is deaf. They are handicapped," Barringer said. "To me, what happened is totally unacceptable.
Harris' brother, Sam, said he has had similar misunderstandings with authorities. The brothers, their parents and several other family members all are deaf.
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.
“I (was) pulled over and within a few seconds, the officer is at my window with his weapon drawn and in my face. I motioned to him. 'I'm deaf, I'm deaf!' ” Sam Harris of Palm Harbor, Fla., said in sign language at a Monday night vigil in honor of his younger brother.
The grieving family said it stands with other oppressed minorities and demands justice as well as police reform.
“You don't see deafness the way you see race, and what we need to change is the system,” Sam Harris said.
The state troopers' training manual cautions officers that interactions with deaf motorists sometimes can lead to tragic misunderstandings. 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.
The training manual advises troopers to watch a person’s hands because “deaf people have been stopped by an officer and then shot and killed because the deaf person made a quick move for a pen and pad.”
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