Innocent Man Brain Dead after "Hard Shove" by Police Officer

Actually this happened back in 09. Quite a lot has happened since then.

The incident was reviewed and there was a decision not to charge the officer with anything...

Deputy won't be prosecuted for shove that injured man

King County prosecutors will not file criminal charges against a sheriff's deputy who slammed a man into a wall so hard after a foot chase that he was left in a coma.

"It's a tragic incident, but there is no legal basis for a criminal charge," said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for Prosecutor Dan Satterberg,

Christopher Harris, 29, of Edmonds, was placed on life support after the incident. His current condition was not immediately known.

A witness incorrectly identified Harris to deputies as a suspect in a bar brawl May 10 in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood. When deputies approached him, Harris fled, according to Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart.

The deputies chased Harris. As Harris slowed to a walk, deputy Matthew Paul, 26, slammed Harris into a concrete wall outside of a Belltown theater.

Since that time the family has decided to file a lawsuit which started recently...

Witnesses at trial tell how deputy shoved man, injuring him

Personally I'm not buying the whole "accident" thing. Ok - maybe the officer didn't mean for him to be brain dead - but given the size difference he had to know it would hurt the guy somehow.

"after a foot chase."!!!????

What chase? The guy was STROLLING down the sidewalk! Did the cop even have time to announce himself as LE before blindsiding this victim??

Is this joker still wearing a gun?

Double face palm!

ETA: "No legal basis for criminal charge"

How about negligent homicide!

This from the witness says a lot...............

Moments later, Dahlberg said, her eyes met Paul's and she heard him whisper to a colleague: "She saw." She described the deputy's expression as "surprised and worried."

Though Dahlberg remained at the scene, she said none of the officers would take her statement.

wonder why they didnt want her statement,,,,,,,,,was probably never brought up in the investigation

reply to post by Cole DeSteele


He apparently ran before he slowed to the a walk. The video seems to pick up after the chase.

Accident my ass. If he comes coma of it he can sue the # out of them.

reply to post by Frogs


This is excactly the type of power the prosecuting attorney has...and in this case its actually malfaesance, or deriliction of duties. The prosecutor should be removed and charged with "criminal" offenses. The case should be re-opened and charges should be made against all of the officers that had anything to do with the "testimony of a bar-fly". They clearly verified nothing to determine that the id was indeed correct prior to ambushing the poor guy. The law enforcement and prosecutorial community in this area is inflicting unnecessary emotional hardships on the family, by forcing them to seek redress in a civil court. Look up the definition of the words criminal, malfaesance and the meaning of deriliction of duties. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer...but I did sleep at a holiday inn express last night. J.K.

NO LAWS WERE BROKEN!??? This is sickening. When is enough enough? How long will these scumbag police officers go unchecked? It gets to the point where they can kill a man and it's an "accident". I'm sure if I were to do the same thing that officer did, I would be in a jail cell right now. I am totally fed up with corrupt police and people in positions of power being bastards about the entire situation. Forget about the totally innocent man one of my officers just killed, I need to make sure I'm still getting paid as chief of police. This is disgusting, if this is what the world is coming to, then I don't want to take any part of it. I'm sure the officer that pushed this guy got a weeks paid vacation at worst. Let a polar shift come, let a asteroid crash into the Earth, this video just reinforces the ideology that humanity isn't worth saving. Look at how we treat one another. When it gets to the point where the people that are supposed to protect us, become the people we have to fear the most, then really why the hell are these people still in positions of power? Why does everyone sit on their lazy asses and allow this to continue? WAKE UP PEOPLE. This is YOUR planet, YOUR Countries, YOUR lives. Get up and freaking take hold of them, because if we don't, someone else sure as hell will and it won't be a joyride of peaches and cream. If for one moment you believe a hell exists, take a look around you and ask yourself if you aren't already in hell.

reply to post by Vortiki


Well said! Good reply and genuinly passionate. I agree with the feelings you had but would have chosen slightly different verbiage. If I was able to successfully upload videos...I would start a (good cop, bad cop) thread. Videos of those paid to "protect and serve" in action, before laws are passed disuading the recording of these events. Most of the videos would probsbly fall under the "bad cop" category...but not all.

reply to post by G.A.G.


Please forgive my shortness of temper in my previous post. This isn't the first time I've ever seen a video of police brutality, and I'm sure it probably won't be the last, unfortunately. Each time I see a video of something like this I take the time to stop and ask myself why people feel the desire to inflict harm upon one another. Of course, being the fair and logical creature that I try to be, perhaps the officer that has done this has suffered a mental make-over of sorts after this whole incident. I would like to give him a benefit of the doubt and HOPE that he has grown a conscious about the things he does since then. That however does not, and will not ever, excuse his behavior towards an innocent man. Even if he was perusing a criminal, there was no need for the excessive force. I want everyone who watches this video to think of a time when you treated someone very poorly when they didn't deserve it, and think about the pain and grief you caused that person. Perhaps it rippled through that persons life and ruined them. Do you think you could live with yourself, if you were the police officer that turned an innocent man into a vegetable?

reply to post by Vortiki


Being rather new here too, I sometimes let the heat of the moment get involved with my replies. I believe that threads like these are some of the most important to respond to. Welcome to a.t.s.

This is what happens when we create self-serving laws that make criminals out of otherwise law-abiding people, encourages a new criminal element, brings violence into our neighborhoods that would not otherwise be there, causes the average person to lose respect for the law and those that enforce it, and generally make a policeman's job much more difficult which also gives him the excuse to use unnecessary force as a matter of course.

That is basically what prohibition has caused, specifically prohibition of a particular benign substance that ATS does not want us to dwell on as a matter of policy. I do not wish to initiate arguments about the pros or cons of that substance but to make it clear that a very large portion of society finds more benefit than fault with it and chooses to ignore that law. In doing so it diminishes respect for law in general, especially knowing that prohibition persists in order to serve big business interests.

There is a chain-reaction because of that prohibition law that is at the core of what we experience in our communities now. When the law itself creates disdain for the law and allows its enforcers to create all-out war against its citizenry we have to realize something is amiss and we need to correct it.

We have created a machine for tyranny. It has left its niche and has begun to engrain itself into all facets of our life. No one anymore is assumed innocent, no one is above suspicion. Mistakes no longer warrant an apology.

reply to post by Frogs


Wow that is not surprising yet sickening. Wait till these guys and the military are deployed on our own soil to actively "protect" us...good times soon to come.

Originally posted by Spinster
"The police insist that no laws were broken and it was a tragic accident"

So if i where to attack an innocent man and put him in a coma would they have the same view?

You see if they charge this man, that would leave open police. Thats why the g20 murder by police in london on tv was never prosecuted.

Its why i always say, if your a serial killer, just join the police, and see what you can get away with.

The NEW gods are here now and we MUST bow down to them or we will suffer......The real peace officers are all dead and gone now and were left with people with the "us" and "them" mentality...Doesn't matter who you are, good or bad, if your not one of them, your open to abuse.......They will all get what is coming to them...Nature will always balance things out....Maybe one day soon this so called officer will find out he has brain cancer and will suffer just like he has made others suffer...We can only hope for this......

reply to post by GlennCanady


Completely uncalled for brute force by the police officer! That is very disturbing. You can see the guy was not provoking or weilding any kind of weapon. The officers need to attack the man was unnecessary!

Truly sickening!

Yet i believe the fact that this happened and "no laws were broken" is the biggest issue here.

That any member of the public wether running away or having even slapped the police officer in the face should NOT be subjected to unreasonable force. and if that is reasonable ( it is not) or excepted as reasonable in your country then you need to protest and have that sort of thing abolished.

I also feel for the officer as he was no doubt trained to handle the situation in that manner. That being the case criminal proceedings should be made against the highest ranks and/or even the politicians who govern the police and have allowed such practices to become the norm.

This is why I look at the majority of cops as a disgrace. Some are friendly down to earth people doing their job, but there are so many **ck cops, it is disgusting. This reminds me of a video I saw the other day where a cop was in a vehicle chase with a suspect. The suspect's car flipped over and he was actually ejected, totally and completely unconscious, and here comes about 4 cops beating him in the head, while he lays motionless. They said it wasn't an unnecessary act or something along those lines. They could have walked up to the guy and cuffed him, put him in the car, and the guy still would have been motionless.

Along with the other video that was on here where a guy told the cop to shut up so he beat him with his Baton for a good minute or so.

Do they not get in trouble for this bull****?

If this happened to me, I would want to knock the cops teeth out, but im sure once that happened, even if he beat me like a dog before, he would not get introuble and I would go to jail for quite a bit of time.

Its Seattle again. The same place where they beat the crap out of that 15yr old girl in the cell,remember that one? People of Seattle you have a problem and you better do something about it,this is disgusting,sickening and completely uncalled for. Did you notice the guy was cornered there were other officers closing in from his front he wasnt going anywhere and again no punishment! Unbelievable,did the gestapo relocate to Seattle?

Well according to police it is not criminal, it is a tragic accident.

So I guess when I decide to shove a police officer into a wall which causes him to become brain dead, I can show this video as my defense. After all... police are examples to the rest of us are they not?

The title is misleading as it says the man is brain dead - actually he is in a coma. Brain dead is the same as dead - life support is just keeping him breathing and heart pumping. It was so unnecessary for the cop to push this man as he did causing severe injury. I hope the cop pays big time for this.