Jason Harrison
By Elaine Magliaro
A recently released video of the officer-involved shooting of Jason Harrison in Dallas last year shows what happened in the moments before the mentally ill man
died. Harrison, 38, was shot by police while holding a screwdriver. His mother had called 911 for help in bringing him to Parkland Hospital while he was in a crisis.
Harrison’s family and their attorney Geoff Henley released the video footage, which shows officers responding to the home of Harrison’s mother on the morning of June 14, 2014.
Police said that Harrison’s mother had told them that her son was making “violent threats” and that “Harrison, who was armed with a screwdriver, became aggressive when the officers ordered him to drop it.”
Naomi Martin (The Dallas Morning News) reported on the story yesterday. She said that the Harrison family and their attorney released the video in hopes that it would “spark reforms for policies and training on how police interact with the mentally ill.” The family also said that police officers “should have first tried less lethal force on Harrison, such as pepper spray or a Taser.”
Jason Harrison’s older brother Sean was quoted as saying, “This is a perfect video for the Dallas Police Department to use in training as an example of what not to do. You don’t yell at them — that only agitates them.”
Chris Livingston, the attorney for the two officers who shot Harrison, said that they feared for their lives. He said killing someone with a screwdriver would be “pretty easy. It’ll only take one blow.” He added, “You can’t de-escalate someone coming at you with a weapon.”
Naomi Martin noted that the Harrison family had “obtained the video from the department as evidence in a federal civil-rights lawsuit they filed in October.”
Martin:
That day, Harrison’s mother called 911 to ask the police for help bringing her son, who was bipolar and schizophrenic, to Parkland Hospital. He was in a crisis because he was off his medication, his family said.
In the 911 call, Harrison’s mother described her son’s mental disorders, and those details were relayed to the officers by dispatchers, Henley said. The video shows Harrison’s mother walking calmly out of the house in the 200 block of Glencairn Drive seconds prior to the shooting.
According to Martin, the Harrison family’s “lawsuit claims Harrison did not pose a threat, in part because the screwdriver he held was a small one used for computers.” Harrison’s older brother Sean said that Jason “had never been violent before.”
Martin:
Police officials have previously said the body camera video backs up the officers’ accounts of self-defense, showing a fast-unfolding event in a tightly confined space. They were protecting themselves, police said.
Look at the video of the police shooting of mental patient Jason Harrison and determine for yourselves if you think the video backs up the officers’ accounts of self-defense.
Edited: Mental patient Jason Harrison shot by Dallas police
SOURCES
WATCH: Dallas cops shoot mentally ill man who refused to stop twiddling screwdriver (Raw Story)
Family releases video of Dallas police fatal shooting of mental patient (The Dallas Morning News)
Nicole Plyler Fisk
Gene Howington
FFS Guest Blogger
Joy of Fishes
Chuck Stanley
shortfinals
Terry Welshans
ann li-summers
wordcloud9
Flowers For Socrates 
I have noticed that many mentally ill black people get shot. Can’t they just shoot them with a tranquilizer and take them to a mental health unit?
Smom,
“Can’t they just shoot them with a tranquilizer and take them to a mental health unit?”
Not really. Tranquilizers are extremely dangerous to use on human for a couple of reason. First, some people are inherently sensitive or even allergic to some kinds of tranquilizers. Second, they are generally dose/weight dependent. Not enough won’t work, too much will kill. Tasers, even with the minimal risk they carry in use, are comparatively much more safe than tranquilizers. The only reason the character Dexter Morgan didn’t outright kill most of his victims with the needle is the convention that he’s a detail oriented serial killer who would have good enough knowledge about his targets weight to properly dose them with the animal tranquilizer he used. Rendering someone unconscious but alive via chemical means? Is extremely dangerous. This is why anesthesiology is a medical specialty; one with really really high insurance premiums that reflect the actuarial risk.
Maybe they need to taser them first but they will put them in restraints and give them a tranquilizing injection once they get to the unit or perhaps in the ambulance as most are in a psychotic state. My point was that is preferable to shooting and killing the mentally ill.
Agreed. However, I suspect (but don’t know this as fact, Chuck might) that sedation in transit is generally frowned upon as it could interfere with triage diagnostics at the ER.
http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/03/family-releases-video-of-dallas-police-fatal-shooting-of-mental-patient.html/ He had been previously been diagnosed and was off his meds. Police did not listen to the mother and demontrated once again that black lives too often don’t matter to them.
Can’t they just shoot them with a tranquilizer and take them to a mental health unit?
===========================
They only do that with black bears
Read that some police departments and mental health departments are also trained in body mechanics and these can also be used to restrain a psychotic person.
The type of tranquilizer commonly used on large animals is etorphine. It is sold as M99. It is an opiod 10,000 times as potent as morphine. Humans are far more sensitive to it than our furry friends. Shoot a human with a tranquilizing gun loaded with M99, and expect a 100% fatality rate.
Schizophrenics and bipolar patients in full florid psychotic states are virtually immune to OC (oleoresin capsicum), better known as pepper spray. Use tear gas and you incapacitate the entire area–that is, everyone but the psychotic person. Both pepper spray and tear gas are largely ineffective on drunks and severely mentally ill.
Tasers are known to increase agitation and arousal in mentally ill, who are probably already agitated. Tasers have a known effect of triggering cardiac arrest in a population taking certain psychotropic drugs, since some of these medications lower the seizure threshold.
Chuck,
There has got to be a better way to subdue individuals like Harrison other than killing them
Bean bags? Even physical subdual like MA techniques carry risk (and require a fair amount of skill to apply). Also consider that a reasonable person is going to comply if in a joint lock where the choice is stop fighting or get your arm broken. An unreasonable person? Maybe not.
Gene,
Are you saying that killing people like Harrison is the best police response?
I was the psychologist for the Mississippi State Hospital Forensic Unit for almost ten years. We had people they could not even handle at the state penitentiary psych unit. During the time I was there, we confiscated a medium sized U-Haul box of weapons. They ranged from shanks, to garrottes woven from dental floss, brass knuckles and various other objects designed to kill or maim. During that time, we never killed anyone. Our approach was overwhelming force, rushing the violent patient with sheer numbers of security guards and staff (usually male, but not always).
The exception to that approach was when my younger son worked there as a security guard after he got out of the military. He started Shotokan Karate when about 12 years old. Later, he got a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. However, his primary asset was the fact he was 6’6″ tall and weighed close to 300 pounds. He would tell the patient what he needed them to do, such as come out of their “house,” (slang for cell). If they didn’t comply, he simply ambled into the cell…alone. There would be a brief flurry of activity and they came out. During all that time, he never broke a bone, dislocated a joint, or left visible bruises. He never wore body armor or a helmet.
Wonder how the police handle these situations in the countries where they are unarmed.
I guess if one has a psychotic son it is better not to call 911 particularly if one happens to be black.
Elaine,
Most certainly not. I’m saying that subduing them carries an inherent risk simply because they are unreasonable, but that physical restraint either by skill or numbers is probably the better solution. Therein lies the problem with the police. They often enter these situations with insufficient people and/or they may not be adequately trained in the proper techniques (or simply rely too heavily upon guns, gas and tasers for whatever reason). In an ideal world, there would be specially trained units to respond to psych related calls.
Wonder if there was a back up ambulance.
There was no need for those cops to shoot. They could have backed off if they felt threatened, and get more help in subduing him. The fact is that they simply took an opportunity to kill somebody for the hell of it. They knew they could get away with it, so they killed him. From the tape they are calm and unconcerned about what happened. Just one more ni**er to kill.
I saw on TV a clip where a mentally disturbed young black guy had a sword outside the police station in Houston and was waving it around. There were about seven or eight cops standing around him and taking it as a joke. Then it was shift change time, and they got tired of the show, so they shot and killed him. NO big deal to them.
“They often enter these situations with insufficient people and/or they may not be adequately trained in the proper techniques (or simply rely too heavily upon guns, gas and tasers for whatever reason). ”
======================
The swat team was busy taking down the guy across the street for selling weed.
Jeez, why not shoot him in the legs? Why the torso, where his vital organs are? I can’t believe they couldn’t have subdued him some other way.
Two comments eaten. WordPress is hungry. Could someone rescue one of them?
Annie,
They were substantively the same, so I released the second.
Inga,
Gene or I either one could have walked up to him and relieved him of that screwdriver. In fact, with a little practice, you could do exactly the same thing. This is how it is done.
Thanks Gene.
Hmmm, Chuck, I don’t know, that guy makes it look easy. I recall locking myself in the med room at the County Psych hospital years ago with a big muscular patient pounding on the door. Luckily we had security staff that usually came running when we pressed the panic button.
Inga,
You did the right thing. Notice the instructor taught to strike quickly and run away. One thing about Krav Maga that is different from other systems: The whole purpose is to survive, whether that means to disarm or to kill. In the Krav Maga system, there is no such thing as a “fair fight.” Get away if you can, fight if you have to. However, if you are forced to fight, use the system to survive, even if you have to do things that would get you thrown out of a competition event.
Chuck Stanley, like your video post of the haga training but I don’t think a majority of the LEO’s are built like that… I do agree w/you de-escalate a situation is what I was taught in medic school if that didn’t work case worker there or on phone or last resort show of force work or handcuffs and a ride w/popo car. No peeper spray cuz it made everyone choke, no tazer risk of accidental contact and now more than one pt. Most no shooting no loss of life! Has anyone research mental health shootings from the 80’s & 90’s? Compared? Trend? Excessive?! Start taking away toys because they can’t behave?! Let me know.
George,
Thanks for the comment. Agree that most officers are not as fit as a military instructor. However, in a system like Krav Maga (and a few others) size does not matter as much as knowing what to do, and what not to do. My youngest is only 5’3″ tall. She has been a correctional officer at two different Sheriff’s departments and is a licensed security guard. I suppose I have taught her something, because when she went for an interview, the Chief asked her what she thought her best asset is. She replied, “My mouth.”
She has been able to break up fights with a laser stare and command voice. However, if you grab her wrist, very bad things will happen, very fast. I have an 88 kilogram grip, but I cannot hold her wrists if she wants to get loose. She is currently in EMT training. Her skills, on many levels, will come in handy.
But to get back to the point of knowing how to use a combination of body mechanics and situational awareness; that can take care of most situations. Deadly force must be the last resort, not the first or second.