8/9/2023 0 Comments Recent shooting in arizonaHe’s never gonna get a chance to walk his daughter down the aisle.” His kids are never gonna get any father-daughter dances. “Now his daughter will never know him,” Harris said. Harris said that when Jacob found out he was going to be a father at 16 years old, he got a full-time job, finished school, and helped to support his girlfriend and child.īefore long, Jacob and his girlfriend had another child. He also had Roland Harris’s brown, almond-shaped eyes. He was on the shorter side-5 feet 4-and he had his dad’s broad shoulders and stocky build. Jacob had wavy black hair and a big, bright smile, accentuated by the peach fuzz that had grown in above his lip and on his chin. He helped me coach little league basketball.” “He helped me watch over his little sister, Leilani. But Roland Harris’s memories of Jacob remain fresh. Police still have not returned his son’s belongings. It took six months for the department to release its report on the shooting, and even then, it only did so after he threatened to sue, Harris said. Police have fought Harris every step of the way, refusing to disclose even basic information about his son’s death. Because then I’ll have to focus on him not being here.” “I have a void in my life that is never going to be filled,” Harris said. Harris and his wife split, in part, he says, because he became so deeply consumed by getting justice for his son. Harris’s search for answers has come at a significant cost: The cop who killed his son has demanded he pay the officer’s $40,000 attorney fees after a federal court dismissed Harris’s wrongful death suit. But Roland Harris’s fight for accountability has only left him with more questions: Why did police delete text messages from the night of his son’s shooting? Why are Jacob’s friends the only ones who have been held responsible for his death? How could anyone say his son’s killing was justified? The police department has since drawn a federal investigation into its use of deadly force. It has been more than four years since a Phoenix police officer killed Jacob Harris, on January 11, 2019. Police pepper him with rubber bullets, hitting him in the face and backside. Bullets pierce his heart, lungs, and intestines. The final moments of his life, documented in thermal video captured by a police aircraft, are burned into Harris’s mind: His teenage son, Jacob, steps out of a car. Roland Harris has watched his son die a hundred times. This story is published in collaboration with the Phoenix New Times.Ĭontent warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of police violence and footage of police officers killing a 19-year-old.
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