N.C. police kill unarmed deaf man who was trying to communicate with sign language after car chase

Aug 23, 2016

A North Carolina state trooper shot and killed an unarmed deaf, mute man who was using sign language only feet away from his home.

According to the New York Daily News, witnesses saw 29-year-old Daniel Harris, get shot “almost immediately” after getting out of his car and attempting to communicate with sign language.

“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.”

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Police say that they were trying to pull Harris over for speeding but that he wouldn’t stop his car, leading to a 7-mile chase through Charlotte. It’s unclear whether or not Harris understood what was happening, as he could not hear the police sirens.

“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,” stated Daniel’s brother, Sam Harris, through a sign-language interpreter.

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Daniel’s family has since set up a fundraiser, in which they hope to use a portion of the funds to help law enforcement get trained on confronting deaf people:

“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.”

The trooper who shot Harris was placed on administrative leave, per standard procedure, and patrol car video will be gathered in the investigation.

Harris leaves behind a 4-year-old son.

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