Randy Trent Harrison
On March 14, 2012, Del City, Oklahoma, police officer Randy Trent Harrison reportedly saw Dane Scott Jr., 18, selling marijuana around the high school from a car. They had three previous encounters, according to reports. Scott sped off and Harrison and another officer followed in their car, leading to a high-speed chase that ended in an accident. Scott fled the scene of the accident, but Harrison tackled him and took a gun away from him. Scott got away again and started running. Scott was wearing baggy pants and kept pulling at them to make sure he didn’t trip on them while running. Harrison claims that he thought that Scott had another weapon and was reaching for it. Despite the presence of bystanders and another officer who could have possibly been hurt, he opened fire. The last of Harrison’s four shots struck Scott’s lung and aorta, killing him. In November 2013, Harrison went to trial, charged with first-degree manslaughter. Prosecutors said that Harrison had deliberately gone after Scott in a personal vendetta. The other officer who was at the scene said that he didn’t feel that Scott was a danger. In fact, he had used a Taser on Scott at approximately the same time Harrison had shot him. Other witnesses said that Scott had his hands up when he was shot. A jury found Harrison guilty, and he was sentenced to four years in prison.
Bryan Conroy
On March 22, 2003, police raided a warehouse that housed a CD and DVD piracy ring in Manhattan. NYPD officer Bryan Conroy was undercover during the raid and was dressed in a postal worker uniform. While Conroy was guarding a cart full of pirated CDs, 43-year-old art trader Ousmane Zongo, who was working on African artifacts in the warehouse, turned on the lights. Zongo, who didn’t speak much English, was afraid when Conroy pulled a gun, so he ran, and Conroy gave chase. Conroy had Zongo trapped in a dead-end corridor and fired five shots, hitting Zongo four times, including two shots to the back. Zongo wasn’t armed, and he was not involved with the piracy ring, which led to Conroy being charged with second-degree manslaughter. He was accused of not following procedure. For example, Conroy should have showed Zongo his badge instead of pointing his gun at him. A jury was deadlocked at 10-2 in his first trial, and a judge found him guilty of criminally negligent homicide at his second trial. Conroy was given five years of probation and 500 hours of community service, and he was fired from the NYPD. Zongo’s family settled with the NYPD for $3 million.
