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AUTHORITIES IN NORTH Carolina have said they are investigating the death of a deaf man who was fatally shot after a trooper tried to pull him over for speeding.
Daniel Harris (29), who used sign language to communicate, led trooper Jermaine Saunders on an eight-mile (13km) chase last Thursday that started on an interstate highway and ended outside his home in Charlotte, local television station WSOC reported.
The driver exited his vehicle in the neighbourhood and an “encounter took place” that led to a shot being fired, North Carolina State Highway Patrol spokesman Sergeant Michael Baker said in a statement.
The driver died at the scene, Baker said. No weapon was recovered from Harris, the State Bureau of Investigation told WSOC.
Saunders has been placed on administrative leave while investigators review evidence, including dashboard and body camera videos.
A neighbour called the shooting “totally unacceptable”.
“He didn’t even hear the siren, he didn’t hear anything … You’re pulling someone over who is deaf,” Mark Barringer told WSOC.
Fundraiser
Harris’s family have launched an online fundraiser to pay for funeral expenses.
Leftover money “will be used to set up a foundation in his name to educate and provide law enforcement [with] proper training” on how to approach people who are deaf, the family’s fundraising page said.
They said they hope to change drivers’ registration systems so that police will know if a driver is deaf when they look up a car’s licence plate number.
“With this change, Daniel will be a hero,” the family said.
At the time of publication, over $14,000 (about €12,300) has been raised.
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Fascinating as always.
Great article. Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhuit!
I needed to read something like this today. Thank you.
Today, above all other days, we are redefining what it means to be Irish. Our proud, culturally-rich country will rise again, as it has many times before.
For now, a very happy St Patrick’s Day to all of you. Stay safe.
I’ve fed my family by selling Leprechauns (other stuff as well!) in our little Galway shop – we decided to close it for the time being yesterday, safer for staff, immunosuppressed family members and for the general public.
In normal times people from all over the world get to hear me ráméis about Leprechauns and we all enjoy the interaction.
I prefer telling them about Newgrange, Poulnabrone, Gráinne Mhaol, our Poets, our writers and the people of 1916 but the much denigrated Leprechaun is an innocent part of the overall package and, while never giving me a pot of gold, has enabled me to feed a family, pay rent and taxes and allow my suppliers and their employees do the same.
The Tourism business looks like it’s totally screwed this year, just hoping the scraps from our online sales will keep us going.
Beidh lá eile againn!
Great article. Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhuit!
I love these articles by Darach, way more please!
I think we need to break this association of the aos sídhe and fairies. Fairies are a mythological Germanic creature, usually depicted as very diminished in size – typically the size of an outstretched hand – with wings. The aos sídhe were of human size (we don’t know enough about the lúchorpáin) and had no wings. They looked exactly like humans although they were from the Otherworld or the Western World. Tír na nÓg, for example, was a home of the aos sídhe. The banshee is literally a bean sídhe. Sídhe, itself, refers to the mounds and not the mythological creature. Aos sídhe, daoine sídhe, na daoine maithe, etc are all other terms for them.
leprechaun economics
That leprechaun is unnaturally tall.
@D’oh: or those children are unnaturally small. They are mine!
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