Jason Harrison

Jason Harrison, 38, who had bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, was shot five times and killed by Dallas Police Officers John Rogers and Andrew Hutchins on June 14, 2014, within seconds of appearing in his own doorway holding a screwdriver. His mother, Shirley Harrison, had called 911 asking for trained officers to help take her son — off his medication and in crisis — to a hospital, and told the dispatcher he was bipolar and schizophrenic. Body camera footage, the first in Dallas to capture a fatal police shooting, showed officers ordering Harrison to drop the screwdriver before shooting him five times, twice in the back, as his mother screamed for them to stop. A Dallas County grand jury declined to indict either officer in April 2015, and a federal judge dismissed the family's civil rights lawsuit in 2016, ruling the shooting did not violate Harrison's constitutional rights. No one has ever been charged in Harrison's death.

Dallas, TX · Dallas County

• 2014: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The 911 call, Harrison's mental health history, and the shooting, per body camera footage released by the Dallas Police Department and the family's federal lawsuit.
• Harrison's mother told the 911 dispatcher he was bipolar and schizophrenic, off his medication, and asked specifically for trained officers to help take him to a hospital.
• Officers shot Harrison five times, including twice in the back, within roughly five to eight seconds of his appearance in the doorway holding a screwdriver.
• A Dallas County grand jury declined to indict Officers John Rogers and Andrew Hutchins on any charge in April 2015.
• Neither officer attempted to use a Taser or other non-lethal option before resorting to gunfire, per the family's lawsuit and body camera footage.
• U.S. District Judge David Godbey dismissed the family's federal civil rights lawsuit in March 2016, ruling the body camera video showed Harrison lunged at the officers and that the shooting did not violate his constitutional rights.

• Whether Harrison in fact lunged at officers in a threatening manner, as the officers' attorney maintained and the federal judge found supported by the video, or whether he was attempting to comply and simply startled, as the family's attorney argued watching the same footage, remains disputed — the case never reached a jury.
• Why officers did not attempt a Taser or other non-lethal method, despite dispatchers having relayed Harrison's specific mental health diagnoses in advance, has not been fully explained by the department.
• Whether Dallas Police Department crisis-intervention training in effect at the time addressed encounters with someone already known to be in a documented mental health crisis has not been comprehensively detailed publicly.

• ABC News — “The Deadly Consequences When Police Lack Proper Training to Handle Mental Illness Calls”
• CNN — “Video: Dallas cops kill mentally ill man”
• Dallas Morning News — “Federal judge drops civil suit against police officers in shooting death of mentally ill man”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs