Wealthy 73-year-old Oklahoma ‘reserve deputy’ accidentally shoots to death unarmed man after confusing his gun was a taser: report

Wealthy 73-year-old Oklahoma ‘reserve deputy’ accidentally shoots to death unarmed man after confusing his gun was a taser: report

Robert Charles Bates, the reserve deputy, had contributed money to the sheriff's reelection campaign as well as equipment and cars to the police department.

A 73-year-old reserve deputy in Oklahoma accidentally shot an unarmed to death after confusing his gun with a taser, according to body-camera footage that was released recently.

Eric Courtney Harris, 44, can be heard on the video saying, “Oh, God, oh he shot me!” on the video to officers from the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office after a foot chase from earlier this month, according to a Los Angeles Times report.

Harris later complains that he is “losing my breath,” to which an officer responds, “F— your breath!” Harris died an hour later.

Robert Charles Bates, the reserve officer who killed Harris, is a 73-year-old insurance executive with political ties to the sheriff.

The sheriff’s office decided not to contact an independent agency to investigate the shooting, concluding internally that the shooting was excusable homicide and not a crime.

The April 2 shooting began as a sting operation. Harris was suspected to dealing drugs and selling a gun, and he had multiple felony convictions from the 1980s and 1990s, and had been convicted of assault on a law enforcement officer in 2013 as well as selling drugs to an undercover officer.

Bates was serving in a support role for the undercover operation, but when Harris tried to escape, he was suddenly thrust into the action. In the video, a member of the task force shows a deputy tackling Harris, and then Bates shouts “Taser!” before a gunshot rings out. Bates can then be heard saying, “I shot him, I’m sorry.”

When Harris complains he’s been shot, the officers immediately began berating him, saying “You f—ing ran!” and “Shut the f— up!”

The video cuts out shortly after that. The police department claims that deputies didn’t hear the gunshot, and that they had no idea he had been shot.

Bates has contributed money to Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz’s reelection campaign. He has also donated equipment to the department and some cars.

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