cop reaches for taser.guy gets shot instead

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jason73

jason73

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Jan 15, 2015
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Oklahoma Man Eric Harris Fatally Shot by Deputy Who Meant to Fire Taser


In Their Own Words: Neighbors React to Walter Scott Shooting
NBC NEWS



Oklahoma prosecutors are reviewing the shooting of an unarmed black man by police who say he was unintentionally struck with a gun instead of tased during the fatal takedown.

Video released Friday shows the dramatic April 2 arrest of Tulsa man Eric Harris, 44, and the moment Reserve Deputy Robert Bates, 73, shoots him.

"Taser! Taser!" Bates is heard shouting, before firing a single round from his regular gun, hitting Harris, who was pinned to the ground by officers.

Bates quickly realized his mistake: "I shot him! I'm sorry!"

As Harris squirms on the ground he screams, "He shot me! He shot me, man. Oh, my god. I'm losing my breath," he said.

Harris was taken to the hospital, where he died about an hour later.

The incident has gained national attention following the video's release and an awareness over fatal police shooting's involving unarmed black men. The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office defended Bates' error and said he "did not commit a crime," reported NBC affiliate KJRH.


Tulsa Police Sgt. Jim Clark, who is reviewing the case "independently," claimed Bates suffered from a phenomenon sometimes called "slip and capture" — in which people unintentionally do the opposite of what they meant to during extreme duress.

The case has been turned over to the Tulsa County district attorney and autopsy results are pending, Tulsa County Sheriff's Maj. Shannon Clark said at a news conference Friday.

Bates, a reserve deputy with the Tulsa County Violent Crimes Task Force, had a pepperball gun in one hand and meant to grab for his Taser with the other hand, but pulled his firearm instead, authorities said.

Bates was not originally supposed to be on the arrest team that day, but was "thrust in to the situation," authorities added.

The video first shows Harris being recorded by a sting operation in which he was allegedly trying to sell a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol and ammunition to an undercover sheriff's task force. But Harris bolted from the car the moment he was about to be arrested, Maj. Clark said.

Harris also has prior convictions for assault and battery on an officer and two other felony arrests, as well as multiple robbery and stolen property charges, KJRH reported.

Maj. Clark said Harris was possibly under the influence of Phencyclidine, PCP, when he was admitted to the hospital. Authorities also said they believed he may have been armed at the time because of the way he was holding his arms near his waistline, although he was arrested without any weapons.


Harris' brother said he was on his way to pick him up the morning he was killed so that they could go to work together. Andre Harris told KJRH that he drove by the scene of the shooting and only realized later it involved his brother when he asked what race the victim was.

"For them to say he was wilding on PCP and fighting, it's not true," Andre Harris said. "And if it is true, they should have tased him."

TULSA SHERIFF'S OFFICE VIA REUTERS
Reserve Deputy Robert Bates, left, was involved in the shooting of suspect Eric Harris, right, after mistaking his service weapon for a stun gun, accidentally killing him, during an arrest Thursday, according to the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office.
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ThatOneDude

ThatOneDude

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Jan 14, 2015
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Wtf, seriously wtf. The guy is a deputy because he is rich and donates a bunch of shit. Fuck that guy, even though nothing will happen to him. I hope the guys family sues the ever living piss out of him and the pd
 
Zeph

Zeph

TMMAC Addict
Jan 22, 2015
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Why is a 73 year old part timer taken on arrests? If he wants to help out, surely he could shuffle some paper or something? I have to say, it seems like every day almost that there is another cop incident in America. I'd be writing to my congressman/senator/whoever to try and get some shit changed, because it seems pretty fucked up.
 
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jason73

jason73

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Jan 15, 2015
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Robert Bates, the reserve Tulsa County deputy who fatally shot a man who was in a physical altercation with another deputy last week, has donated thousands of dollars worth of items to the Sheriff’s Office since becoming a reserve deputy in 2008.

Bates, 73, accidentally shot Eric Harris on Thursday, according to Maj. Shannon Clark, after Harris — the subject of an undercover gun and ammunition buy by the Sheriff’s Office’s Violent Crimes Task Force — fled from arrest and then fought with a deputy who tackled him. Bates, Clark said, thought he was holding a stun gun when he pulled the trigger.

Bates is not an active member of the task force but donates his hours there as a highly regarded member of the Reserve Deputy Program, Clark said.

Harris, 44, an ex-convict with an extensive criminal history, was shot in the right axilla, the area under the joint that connects the arm to the shoulder, according to the state Medical Examiner’s Office. Clark said Harris, who died at a Tulsa hospital after the shooting, told a deputy at the scene that he had taken PCP earlier in the morning.

Bates apparently is not alone as both a donor and reserve deputy. While the Sheriff’s Office has not released its full roster, Clark said other wealthy donors are among the agency’s 130 reserve deputies.

“There are lots of wealthy people in the reserve program,” he said. “Many of them make donations of items. That’s not unusual at all.”

Bates has donated multiple vehicles, guns and stun guns to the Sheriff’s Office since he became a reserve deputy in 2008, Clark said. The Sheriff’s Office did not have an itemized list of donations made by Bates available Monday and deferred that question to the county commissioners’ office, which tracks those items.

The shooting, which a Sheriff’s Office press release says happened after a brief foot pursuit in the 2000 block of North Harvard Avenue, was recorded via two “sunglass cameras,” Clark said. He could not confirm whether those sunglass cameras were purchased by Bates, but a source told the Tulsa World that Bates had recently purchased them for the Violent Crimes Task Force.

According to the Sheriff’s Office’s “Use of Force” policy, deputies are authorized to use deadly force to:

• Protect themselves or others when the deputy has reason to believe there is immediate danger of death of serious bodily harm;

• Prevent the escape of a fleeing felon when the deputy has probable cause to believe both that the person has committed a felony involving the action or threat of serious physical injury or death and that the subject’s escape would pose an imminent danger of death or serious physical harm to deputies and others.

First Assistant District Attorney John David Luton said Monday that the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office had not received the case from the Sheriff’s Office but would seek to “move quickly” on a decision on possible charges against the reserve deputy once presented with the case.

Before Bates was a reserve deputy, he served one year — from 1964 to 1965 — as a police officer, according to Tulsa police.

According to the Sheriff’s Office’s Reserve Deputy Program policy manual, reserves — who Clark said are not compensated financially for any hours they work — are separated into three categories: basic, intermediate and advanced.

Bates, Clark said, is classified as an “advanced reserve,” which means he “can do anything a full-time deputy can do.” Though Bates’ assignment to the Violent Crimes Task Force was not unusual, Clark said, the insurance company executive would have been assigned to the undercover operation in a support role.

“Although he had training and experience for the arrest team, he’s not assigned to the arrest team,” Clark said of Bates’ role on the task force. “He came to render aid during the altercation, but he’s in a support role during the operation. That means keeping notes, doing counter-surveillance, things like that.”

According to Reserve Deputy Program policy, to be classified as “advanced,” you must have 320 hours of training with CLEET (the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training) as well as have completed 480 hours of the TCSO Field Training Officer Program.

At that point, the policy states, reserve deputies can “perform normal field duties by themselves and without the direct supervision of a certified deputy.”

CLEET paralegal Catherine Streeter said Bates was actively certified with the organization, but she could not release documents stating when he received his training.

Advanced reserve deputies “must complete 40 hours of service every six months” to maintain certification, the policy states.

The Tulsa Police Department, by comparison, has “about 55” reserve officers, Officer Leland Ashley said. TPD reserves typically work traffic control or events such as parking lot patrols during “Safe Shopper” operations in heavy shopping seasons, he said.

Ashley said the only time Chief Chuck Jordan remembers reserve officers being used on a task force was during last summer’s hunt for a serial rapist.

Other than that task force, in which reserve officers sat in marked patrol cars in hopes of deterring the rapist from attacking again, Ashley said TPD reserves “aren’t utilized in task forces or undercover operations.”
 
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