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05-31-2009, 01:46 AM
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Deputy Slams Christopher Harris Into Wall, Causing Coma, Seattle, May 2009
Christopher Harris, 29, suffered catastrophic head and spinal injuries when King County sheriff's Deputy Matthew Paul slammed him into a concrete wall outside Seattle's Cinerama theater in May 2009. A witness had wrongly identified Harris as a suspect in an earlier assault. Deputies working Metro Transit duty chased him on foot before he stopped and turned and Paul shoved him into the wall. Harris was left in a coma. Theater surveillance footage shows him down at the base of the wall, with dark-clothed figures standing over him and bystanders gathering. Prosecutors declined to charge Paul in July 2009, and an internal investigation cleared him. King County settled Harris's lawsuit for $10 million in 2011. By then, Harris was bedridden, unable to speak and dependent on others for all care. He died in December 2015 at age 36. A forensic pathologist ruled his death a homicide caused by complications of blunt head trauma. The coroner emphasized that the classification did not necessarily mean a crime had occurred. |