POLICE RELEASE DETAILS OF PEDESTRIAN FATALITY
Family of victim says El Cajon officers involved in his death
Police on Wednesday provided more details about a fatal pedestrian crash last week in El Cajon in response to claims by the victim’s family that officers were involved in the man’s death.
El Cajon police called the accusation a “conspiracy theory.”
According to police, 29year-old Stephen Anthony Harris III was struck by a white Mercedes-Benz sedan at 8:40 p.m. on Nov. 25, the night before Thanksgiving, while crossing West Chase Avenue near Tuttle Park.
Harris died on impact, according to the county Medical Examiner’s Office, which determined his cause of death to be multiple blunt force injuries. In a news release the night of the crash, El Cajon police Lt. Jeremiah Larson said Harris sustained “significant injuries to the head.” On Tuesday, a small memorial stood at the foot of a light pole at the park, across the roadway from where Harris was struck, near messages written in his honor on the sidewalk in red spray paint. On the opposite sidewalk, just feet from where Harris died, the lettering read: “RIP Tony World.”
According to his family, Harris was a father of two young children and a rap musician who died the night before his favorite holiday, when
his extended family was expected to gather for Thanksgiving.
Citing Harris’ history of run-ins with El Cajon police and other information, his family does not believe he was killed in a crash, but instead believe that police officers were involved in his death. They claim the coverup extends to the Medical Examiner’s Office.
The family says it has proof of police involvement in Harris’ death, but much of what they showed a reporter this week seemed to focus on Harris’ earlier encounters with law enforcement and investigative methods at the scene of the crash.
The family and their supporters have held several small protests outside El Cajon police headquarters this week, including on Sunday and Monday. Another rally was planned for Wednesday.
El Cajon police called the accusations false, and said they began immediately at the crash scene, where the family yelled profanities at officers.
Videos posted to Facebook by Harris’ family members show them angrily berating officers at the crash site. At times, the officers respond angrily, cursing at the family members while commanding them to move away from Harris’ body, which was covered by a yellow tarp.
In an interview Tuesday afternoon at Tuttle Park, the family presented information they say shows officers covering up their involvement in Harris’ death. That information included videos of prior interactions between officers and Harris — including one from Jan. 17, 2019, outside the same 7-Eleven near where Harris was struck and killed. Other videos from the night of the crash showed investigators marking evidence near the scene, which the family claimed was planted.
In a lengthy statement released Wednesday, El Cajon police acknowledged numerous prior interactions with Harris, saying officers “contacted (him) no less than 15 times in the past 12 months” for alleged incidents of disturbance, trespassing and intoxication. According to news reports, Harris was also allegedly involved in a SWAT standoff on Thanksgiving night in 2011.
Police said Wednesday that the Mercedes’ driver, a man in his 20s, was evaluated at the scene and was not suspected of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Excessive speed was not a factor in the crash, police said, and both the driver and his passenger were cooperative with investigators.
Police also said “several witnesses” confirmed Harris was walking in the roadway, in dark clothing, when he was struck. According to police, surveillance video showed Harris “appeared to be intoxicated,” and “preliminary testing showed drugs and alcohol in his system at the time of his death.”
On Tuesday, a man who was at Tuttle Park told The San Diego Union-Tribune he witnessed a police officer’s involvement in Harris’ death. He provided cellphone data to show he was at the park that night. But a separate, independent interview with the man’s friend, who was also at the park that night, cast doubt on the veracity of the claim.
Earlier this week, Lt. Randy Soulard, a Police Department spokesman, declined to comment on specifics of the crash or investigation, but detailed in an email how El Cajon officers generally treat collisions that result in major injuries or death, acknowledging that “fatal collisions can be very emotionally charged scenes and can be very traumatic for everyone involved.”
Such scenes “are treated like crime scenes,” Soulard wrote. “This is because although the cause of the collision may seem apparent at the time of our initial response, there are many significant factors that could have contributed to the collision.”
Soulard said such investigations include “extensive collision reconstruction, precise measurements of the areas of impact, extensive 3D mapping, aerial imaging, and other techniques to very accurately document the scene.”