We need to talk about the death of Daniel Harris

This is a reflection piece on the death of Daniel Harris from a deaf woman’s perspective.

Daniel Harris, a 29 year old deaf father, was shot and killed two weeks ago by a North Carolina state trooper just feet away from his own home. According to reports, the police attempted to pull him over for a speeding violation on Interstate 485, but Harris led them 6-7 miles to his house instead of pulling over right away essentially causing a speed chase.

Daniel Harris is a deaf man who does not speak and instead uses sign language as his primary form of communication. When misunderstandings erupted due to the language barrier, the police shot Harris, where he died on the scene. Witnesses say Harris was shot, “almost immediately after he exited [his] car.” It is noted that Harris attempted to communicate using sign language. However, the state trooper tells sources that he shot the unarmed deaf man due to Harris’ advancement and not following oral commands. But, according to Harris’ immediate family, they believe Harris was ‘afraid’ and did not understand the entire situation.

“He could not hear their warnings. He could not hear their commands to stop or to stay away from them.”

Although this specific event has been painted all over media, these type of stories are nothing new to the disabled community. The Deaf community specifically knows the stories of Pearl Pearson, Jonathan Meister, Robert Kim, and many more. We are well aware that a month ago there was an an attack that led to over 100 disabled patients injured and 19 disabled individuals killed, who were chosen as a target simply because their murderer, an ex-employee of the facility which they were kept in, felt disabled individuals deserved nothing but death. Abusive authority figures and ableism is a common subject for the disabled. 

But the story of Daniel Harris has specifically shaken me to my core. Perhaps this is because this is the first major death in the Deaf community since I have permanently lost my hearing. But Daniel’s story is a living nightmare for me.

Since becoming deaf, adjustment was necessary for me. Overall the experience of my newfound disability has not been tragic like some may think. I have received cochlear implant surgeries, learned sign language, and met many wonderful people in the Deaf community. The adjustment certainly was not easy and surely is not over, but I believe I am doing quite well and have remained positive. I am happy with my deafness.

But Daniel Harris’ story has my two greatest fears realized in one event: First, an innocent disabled person was abused by an authority figure because the figure was ignorant of the disabled person’s medical condition. Second, the idea of deafness not being accommodated during an extremely serious situation, thus resulting in the deaf person losing control of their circumstances.

Although I cannot answer questions like, “why didn’t he pull over right away?” (which we will never know the answer to, since he was killed on the scene before he could even defend himself), I can tell you from my own deaf experience just how terrified Daniel must have been.

My experiences may not have been as extreme, but I have certainly been in his shoes. I have been in the tense position where I did not have control over my situation because no one was accommodating for my deafness. During my honeymoon in London,  I was almost thrown out of a museum by a security guard because I could not understand his request for me to adjust my seating. I tried explaining to him over and over again that I was deaf and could not understand his request, but he only got more angry with me and started to yell, causing a scene. The women sitting on the bench did not defend me, but rather looked in another direction – one even stood up and walked away. If it was not for my able-bodied husband who heard the man and stepped in to defend me, who knows what exactly would have happened. I am sure I would have been fine, but I was completely terrified and confused, which brought me to tears in the moment.

But this story is again nothing new to those who are disabled. We have all experienced this. Sometimes it leaves our feelings hurt, other times it denies us our human rights. On some occasions it even costs us our lives. Because our society is so able-bodied dominate, it is so easy to forget that there are disabled people in the world. What is even worse is when people are unaware of your disability and jump to conclusions.

People are so quick to judge others, and having an invisible disability only makes it harder.

So why do we need to talk about Daniel Harris? His death, no matter how you justify it, was not necessary. People need to be aware that not everyone is like them, whether it be race, gender, sexuality, etc. It is important to never make assumptions of others. It is even more important to be aware that our world is not completely able-bodied.

According to the U.S. census, 1 in 5 Americans have some type of disability. You will meet people different from you, just like the state trooper met the deaf man named Daniel Harris. We need to be more compassionate and aware of others – and this is doubly true for those in positions of power or authority.