Source: Joshua Lott / Getty
Another sad story of a citizen being shot and killed by a police officer. This one hits close to home because it happened close to Charlotte. A 29-year-old man who was deaf and mute was shot and killed by police officers while reportedly attempting to use sign language with them. Daniel Harris was pulled over for speeding, and witnesses say after a 6 mile pursuit he stepped out of his vehicle and was shot and killed.
One of Harris’ neighbors spoke about the situation:
“They should’ve de-escalated and been trained to realize that this is an entirely different situation. You’re pulling someone over who is deaf, they are handicapped. To me, what happened is totally unacceptable.”
Cops say that they attempted to pull Harris over and he continued to drive. Well, that was probably because he couldn’t hear the sirens. Harris lived in a home with other disabled family members. His family released a statement via their GoFundMe Page.
“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.”
More prayers for another grieving family!
