Deputy ‘inadvertently’ shoots suspect with gun, believing he was using Taser
A Tulsa County reserve deputy is on
administrative leave after “inadvertently” shooting a suspect with his gun.
Police say Robert (Bob) Bates, 73,
thought he pulled out his Taser during an arrest, but instead shot the suspect,
who later died at a local hospital.
The shooting happened after an apparent
drug and gun selling operation by the Tulsa Violent Crimes task force Thursday.
Bates, a member of the task force, was part of a group of deputies trying to
arrest Eric Courtney Harris, 44, in the parking lot of a Dollar General store.
Police say Harris, a convicted felon,
sold undercover officers a pistol. When confronted by an arrest team, he fled
the scene on foot and police say they “observed him reaching for his waistband
area …causing concern for the deputies safety.”
After a brief pursuit, police say
Harris was forced to the ground, where he continued to resist arrest and
“refused to pull his left arm from underneath his body where his hand was near
his waistband.”
It was during this portion of the
arrest that police say “the reserve deputy was attempting to use less lethal
force, believing he was utilizing a Taser, when he inadvertently discharged his
service weapon, firing one round which struck Harris.”
Harris died at a local hospital and his
cause of death is under investigation. Police say Harris admitted to medics at
the scene that he may have been under the influence of Phencyclidine, a street
drug commonly known as PCP.
