News

Death of man slammed into wall by deputy determined homicide

SEATTLE — A man who suffered a catastrophic brain injury after a King County sheriff's deputy slammed him into a concrete wall following a 2009 foot chase has died.

Key developments:

  • Christopher Harris died Thursday
  • He was injured in 2009
  • Autopsy determined death homicide
  • Family recieved a 10 million dollar settlement in 2009

The Thurston County Coroner’s Office determined his matter of death to be homicide, according to a news release on Friday.

Christopher Harris died Thursday.

In 2011, King County agreed to pay $10 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Harris' wife, Sarah, after she claimed Deputy Matthew Paul used excessive force and was negligent. It was the largest individual award ever paid by the county, and came several days into the family's trial against the county.

Harris ran from deputies who mistook him for a suspect in a fight in Seattle. After a couple of blocks, Harris stopped and turned, and the deputy slammed him head-first into a concrete wall of a movie theater. The violent tackle was captured on surveillance video.

https://twitter.com/DeborahKIRO7/status/675387589004681216

At the time, Harris lived in Edmonds, where he worked at a restaurant.

He was walking down an alley in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood May 10, 2009, when a witness identified him to Paul and another deputy as a suspect in a bar fight that had continued at a nearby convenience store.

Harris led the deputies on a foot chase over a couple of blocks with the deputies yelling for him to stop. The two sides disputed exactly when the deputies identified themselves as law enforcement officers. The deputies were dressed in black tactical uniforms, not traditional deputy uniforms.

Attorneys for Harris' wife argued Christopher Harris likely didn't realize the deputies were officers.

County prosecutors did not file criminal charges against Paul, and he remains on the force. An internal Sheriff's Office investigation determined Paul delivered a "hard shove" that fell within legal bounds.

A forensic pathologist performed an autopsy on Friday, which revealed that Mr. Harris died of:  “acute and chronic pneumonia of the lungs, due to medical sequelae, due to blunt head trauma.”

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