New Video Shows Beginning of Chase Before Police Shooting of Deaf Man
The driver, who was deaf, was shot and killed by police on Aug. 18.
— -- New video has emerged showing what is believed to be part of the chase that led to the police shooting of a deaf man on Aug. 18.
The footage is from cell phone video taken by a motorist who was stuck in traffic some distance away from the incident, according to ABC affiliate WSOC-TV, which obtained the footage.
The video appears to show a North Carolina Highway Patrol officer standing outside a car's driver-side door. Two other unknown men are standing in front of the car several feet away when, suddenly, the driver, who is believed to be Daniel Harris, 29, the victim of the shooting, backs up the vehicle, and then starts to move forward, driving away.
The trooper returns to his patrol car to pursue the vehicle, the video shows.
The new video fleshes out the circumstances of the police-involved shooting that has garnered national attention.
When the incident was first reported, police said Harris had been stopped for speeding on I-485. Police noted that after a brief pursuit, the suspect exited his vehicle, and a confrontation took place with officers, police said. One of those troopers fired a shot, police said, adding that Harris died at the scene.
The new video that has emerged appears to be of the traffic stop before the pursuit.
"At the request of the Highway Patrol, the State Bureau of Investigation is conducting an investigation into the shooting," the North Carolina Highway Patrol said in a statement after the initial report of the shooting.
The North Carolina Highway Patrol told ABC News today that they had no further comment to give about the shooting, or the video, because the shooting death of Harris was currently under investigation.
Harris' brother, Charles, said in a statement posted on Facebook immediately following the shooting that "my family and I don't understand why it had to happened."
He said his brother was "really scared" of cops because of publicized police confrontations with unarmed or black people.
"Worst thing is ... my brother Daniel is deaf. How he can communicate with polices [sic] and able to feel safe and protect himself from polices [sic]? My brother is UNARMED and still get shot by police," Charles Harris wrote in the statement.
The Ruderman Family Foundation, a philanthropic nonprofit group, published a study in March of 2016 claiming that half of all high-profile police-related shooting victims suffered from some form of disability.
Lawrence Carter-Long, a public affairs specialist with the National Council on Disability, and one of the co-authors of the Ruderman study, told ABC News that the deaf often search for someone who can speak American Sign Language (ASL) when confronted with a situation where they are not being understood, and that deafness is frequently misunderstood by police to be a sign of "non-compliance."
"Circumstances like this are a recipe for tragedy," Carter-Long said, referring to a person's disability being misinterpreted by police.
ABC News' Tom Liddy contributed to this report.