The trial of Randy Harrison, a Oklahoma police captain accused of fatally shooting unarmed Black teenager Dane Scott Jr., took an explosive turn yesterday when Scott’s friend testified that the 18-year-old raised his hands and appeared to try to surrender before he was shot.
The testimony of John Lockett, 17, added another controversial element to this closely watched trial.
The case became a national story when Del City police Capt. Harrison, 48, killed Scott last March 14, 2012, because it was in the midst of the furor over George Zimmerman’s shooting of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and after the arrests of two white men accused of fatally shooting three Black people in Tulsa during a racially motivated shooting spree.
A 23-year veteran of the police department in Del City, located southeast of Oklahoma City, Harrison pleaded not guilty and faces a minimum of four years and a maximum of life in prison if convicted.
The prosecutors said Harrison seemed obsessed with Scott, whom he had previously arrested on drug violations. A police department affidavit spells out that Scott posed no threat of death or great bodily harm to Harrison when the captain shot him in the back.
Harrison’s defense claims Harrison’s use of deadly force was justified because of Scott’s actions before the shooting.
During his testimony, Lockett said Scott was running away from Harrison when the officer opened fire.
“He had his hands up like this,” Lockett said, demonstrating by holding his hands up over his head. “He put his hands up like he surrendered.”
Harrison fired a total of four bullets, with one of them going through both of Scott’s lungs and piercing his aorta.
However, other witnesses contradicted the teen by saying they don’t recall seeing Scott attempting to give himself up.
“All he was doing was trying to get away,” said Kenneth Hodge, who saw the fatal shooting from a nearby business.
The incident occurred when Harrison tried to pull over a car Scott was driving. The teen led Harrison on a high-speed chase during which Scott tried to hide marijuana and a gun he had, according to Lockett, who was in the car with him. Scott eventually crashed the car into a tractor-trailer and began scuffling on the ground with Harrison after the collision.
During the scuffle, according to authorities, Harrison took a handgun from Scott, so the teen was not armed when he was shot.
Eric Thomason, 48, of Oklahoma City, also saw the encounter and testified that Harrison appeared to be fighting for his life as he struggled to disarm Scott. But Thomason admitted that Scott wasn’t a threat to Harrison or another officer nearby when the shooting happened.
“I never felt him as a threat to me,” Thomason said.
Thomason was in a pickup truck that pulled up to an intersection where the struggle was taking place. During the fight, he said he thought Scott was trying to shoot the officer.
“I was looking down the barrel of the gun they were fighting over,” he testified.
Thomason said after Harrison knocked the gun from Scott’s hand, Scott started running away from the officer and toward the pickup. Thomason got out of his truck and tried to grab Scott but missed him. When he tried to climb over a fence, Harrison shot him and he fell to the ground, Thomason said.
“The gun was being pointed in my direction,” Thomason testified. “I felt like I was in the line of fire.”
Another witness, Maj. Steve Robinson of the Del City Police Department, said he fired his stun gun as Scott approached him. There was nothing in Scott’s hands, he said.
“My intent was to capture him,” Robinson said.
Asked by District Attorney David Prater if it was professional for an officer to fire at a suspect who was so close to another officer, Robinson said, “It wouldn’t be a good idea. It’s not safe.”
