A ludicrous statement. Hearing people drive, too. Or did you not know that?
Hey, a hearing person can be alerted to the sounds!
Posted on 08/22/2016 10:56:55 AM PDT by No One Special
Charlotte, NC — A community and family is mourning the loss of Daniel Kevin Harris, whose life was taken this week by a State Trooper who apparently fears sign language. Harris, who is deaf and mute, was gunned down in front of his house.
According to police, trooper Jermaine Saunders attempted to pull Harris over around 6:14 p.m. on Thursday. For an unknown reason, Harris did not stop and, instead, drove to his home.
During the pursuit, both cars became damaged and eventually came to a stop near Harris’ home.
“I was here in my driveway and I saw the highway patrol car come through and it was smoking really bad,” said neighbor Mark Barringer. “About 10 seconds later, I heard one gunshot.”
According to WCNC, Barringer says when he went to take a closer look, he saw Harris in the middle of the street. He died just a few feet from his front door. Several neighbors have put flowers near where Harris took his final breaths.
“It was surreal, you just don’t expect to see something like that,” said Barringer. “When the gunshot went off, it was scary.”
According to police, detectives say Saunders and Harris got into “an encounter” before the officer killed him. However, according to neighbors, as soon as Harris got out of his vehicle, Saunders fired.
“While on Seven Oaks Drive, the driver exited his vehicle and an encounter took place between the driver and the trooper causing a shot to be fired,” according to a statement from the State Highway Patrol.
Detectives say Harris was trying to communicate with the trooper using sign language before he was killed.
Harris died on the scene. He was 28-years-old.
• Ad-div-empty: id contentad130998 • Ad-div: id div-gpt-ad-1470255094958-0 “They should’ve deescalated and been trained to realize that this is an entirely different situation, you’re pulling someone over who is deaf, they are handicapped,” said Barringer. “To me, what happened is totally unacceptable.”
Neighbor Ryan Russell said he’d see the man out in the neighborhood speaking in sign language with his family. “It seemed like a very peaceful family,” Russell told WBTV. “These things are always heartbreaking.”
Audria Bridges, special agent in charge of the SBI office that covers the Charlotte region, said Saunders has been placed on administrative leave and an investigation is underway.
“The SBI is in the process of obtaining all available dash cam or body camera video present on the scene from the State Highway Patrol as well as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, as CMPD responded to the scene immediately after the shooting,” Bridges said.
According to the Charlotte Observer, public records show an interpreter provided sign language for Harris at a court hearing in Florida in 2010. At the hearing, he was found not guilty of misdemeanor larceny and had a charge of misdemeanor resisting property recovery dismissed, records show.
Harris was found guilty of resisting an officer in 2010 when he lived in Connecticut, according to public records. However, this resisting charge was likely due to the fact that Harris could not hear the officer’s commands.
In the land of the free, a deaf man suspected of driving too fast can be killed in cold blood. Unfortunately, as we’ve shown time and again, this type of mistreatment and attacks on the deaf by police are all too common.
Read through the thread.
Depends on your state.
Your ridicuous sarcasm is not necessary,I’m aware of that.
My point was that if deaf people get driving licenses we obviously don’t need the sounds anymore-———therefore JUST the lights.
.
Have you seen my comments, or are you only interested in discostu’s?
Weekly?
A ludicrous statement. Hearing people drive, too. Or did you not know that?
Hey, a hearing person can be alerted to the sounds!
I don’t need ALL the facts.
...
And that’s why you have an opinion I don’t value in the least little bit.
Yeah, talking is definitely not considered a necessary driving skill.
I asked my questions about deafness and DL and that took me to the bottom of the thread and found out that if I had just read for a while, my question would have been answered. Happens a lot, I should read more and ask useless questions less. Discostu’s answer wsa the first one I saw.
You seem to know an incredible amount for not having been there.
Are you psychic?
Not while texting. But people without hands do get drivers licenses... and even a couple have pilots licenses.
A 28 your old man is nearly a kid you have got to be kidding us.
Can the person listening to the blaring of heavy metal be alert enough to use his/her eyes all the time? Would his/her eyes truly become their ears?
If so, no problem.
I’m deaf, been that way for over 50 years (lost it when I was 16). I’ve had a driver’s license since I was 23. And while I’ve been in several accidents, only one was my fault. It was stupid, but the police didn’t have any problem with me or the accident.
All other times it was me who was hit, and always by people with 2 good ears!
It’s not that difficult to understand. As I’ve said, my eyes must be my ears. I have to see everything. If there’s something I don’t see, a problem could ensue.
With regard to the story, a couple of observations seem germane (oops!). First, it is possible that, even at 28, he had problems with being socially acclimated. It happens. Being deaf in a hearing world can be intimidating for a young person, especially if you see a cop bearing down on you.
The story also strongly implies the young lad was known to police. It is possible, methinks, he’d had adverse encounters with the law.
I’m not saying any of this is the way it went down, only that the kid is dead, through no fault of his own, and the cop is likely going to try and talk his way out of this.
The young man, it is noted, was mute, too. Alas, in more ways than one.
No one will be his voice in this matter, and it will all likely dissolve quickly into the woodwork.
How sad.
CA....
“Harris was found guilty of resisting an officer in 2010 when he lived in Connecticut”
He has a history of not going easily. That must work better in the liberal northeast than it does in the Carolinas.
Don’t doubt it a bit.
Might have been why he drove to his house, so he could get someone who could communicate with the officer more easily.
“only that the kid is dead”
I know
Very plausible.
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