A North Carolina state trooper shot and killed 29-year-old Daniel Harris — who was not only unarmed, but deaf. According to early reports from neighbors who witnessed the shooting this past Thursday night, Harris was shot and killed “almost immediately” after exiting his vehicle.
According to NY Daily, he appeared to be trying to communicate with the officer via sign language after being stopped for a speeding violation.
“They should’ve de-escalated and been trained to realize that this is an entirely different situation,” neighbor Mark Barringer said. “You’re pulling someone over who is deaf, they are handicapped. To me, what happened is totally unacceptable.”
Police claim they attempted to pull Harris over for speeding, but he continued driving home instead of pulling over. Whether Harris fully understood what was happening, since he could not have heard the sirens, is unclear. His family, including his siblings, are also hearing impaired and could often be seen communicating with each other via sign language in the neighborhood.
If reports from neighbors are accurate, it doesn’t appear the officer even tried, but pretty much shot and killed Harris mere seconds after he got out of the car.
In a widely shared fundraiser from the Harris family, they wrote:
“Our family is raising funds to cover his memorial and cremation expenses (details pending). Any monies left over will be used to set up a foundation in his name to educate and provide law enforcement proper training on how to confront Deaf people. Subsequently, we hope to change the DMV registration system by requiring states to set up a ‘DEAF’ alert to appear when law enforcement look up a car’s license plate. With this change, Daniel will be a hero in our Deaf community.”
