Harris Jr. Identified In Video That Shows Him Pulling Out Gun, Running To Shoot At Police
Surveillance video has been released that police say shows Tyrone Harris with a gun – minutes before he allegedly fired at plainclothes officers.
Harris, 18, is currently fighting for his life in hospital after being shot by police in Ferguson on Sunday night during protests to mark the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s death. Footage from the 13-second video, taken from a local insurance company in Ferguson, was released on Tuesday by the St. Louis County Police Department.
Police said it shows Harris grab a handgun out of his waistband once shots are fired on West Florissant Avenue during the protest.
This surveillance video shows a milling crowd, that includes two separate rival groups, who break out in gunfire over a looted television. Once the other group of people starting shooting at the group that Harris Jr. was in, this video shows people taking cover and cars quickly leaving to escape the gunfire. This video shows Harris Jr. running away at first, pulling a 9 mm Sig Sauer from his waistband, and then running out of view of the camera to what looks like the direction of across the street.
This video completely matches up with the statement from the detectives. The plain clothed detectives had been tracking Harris Jr. when the gunfire erupted and they turned on their lights. They said they saw Harris Jr. run from across the street, hesitate to run back and then he started shooting at the officers when he spotted them and their police lights. The officers shot back, there were several times -not just once- Harris Jr. made the choice to shoot at the clearly marked police officers, before they ended up having to shoot him. Does anything so far sound like an “injustice” to Harris Jr. so far? If you want to talk about injustice, I’ll tell you injustice.
It’s an injustice that these officers, who had families and children, were shot at through the windows of their car, and could have been killed trying to keep society safe by tracking a criminal with repeated felonies. This is not the first time Harris Jr. was caught with a stolen weapon, last time he was caught with a stolen weapon was in November when he stole a car and led police in a high speed chase that had to be ended with spike strips. Why was Harris Jr. given a second chance so early to steal another gun and even shoot at police? He was begging to be shot, this is such a prime example of what happens when you make a conscious series of stupid choices. What should have happened people? A smack on the hand prison sentence so he could be back on the streets again with better cred with his buddies?
A normal person would read this and disregard this story as another thug shot: police doing their jobs to make the streets safer. NO, stories like these are perfect for those with an agenda to cause unrest and divide our country on stupid things like the color of your skin. These stories divert from the fact of criminal behavior and turn the stories into injustices over race.
Proof of this? Harris Jr’s father says after all the evidence and of course knowing his own son, that he believes the police are not telling the whole story saying, “He meant well and I don’t think they should make him out to be a criminal.” He and others are trying to say that Harris Jr. was at the wrong place at the wrong time, meaning he was shot down unprovoked and what happened to him was a terrible injustice.
Media is buying in to this also, writing sob stories about Harris Jr saying he was trying to get his life on track, and Harris Jr.’s girlfriend said that they were just going to “pay their respects” to Michael Brown with the protestors, even though she previously told media that they met up with the group of people that looted the TV and migrated to where the shooting ultimately took place. The victim’s grandmother said that she thought Harris Jr. had a gun because he wanted to protect himself when the protests get violent…
Really people? Refuse to buy into these lies and the underlying agenda.
John Belmar, St. Louis County Police chief hit the nail on the head with this statement, “There is a small group of people out there that are intent on making sure that we don’t have peace.” People are trying to paint this story into an injustice: don’t believe their lies. Support your police officers that are proven to be doing their jobs and risking their lives every day to get thugs of any color off the streets.
