April 13--A 73-year-old Oklahoma insurance executive serving as an unpaid volunteer sheriff's deputy was charged with manslaughter Monday after officials accused him of negligence in the death of an unarmed suspect who had been shot with a gun instead of a Taser.
The victim, Eric Courtney Harris, 44, died during an undercover sting April 2 after he ran from Tulsa County sheriff's deputies trying to arrest him on suspicion of selling guns and drugs.
Video released by the sheriff's office showed that after a deputy tackled Harris in the street, Robert Charles Bates, a reserve deputy on the department's violent crimes task force, shouted, "Taser!" -- but instead shot Harris with a gun once, apparently by mistake.
The case also drew attention because of Bates' political connections. He had chaired the 2012 reelection campaign for Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz and donated cars and other equipment to the department.
Over the weekend, the sheriff's office, conducting its own investigation, strongly argued that Bates was innocent of any crime. But on Monday, after receiving the case late Friday, the Tulsa County district attorney's office disagreed.
"Mr. Bates is charged with second-degree manslaughter involving culpable negligence," Tulsa County Dist. Atty. Stephen A. Kunzweiler said in a written statement. "Oklahoma law defines culpable negligence as 'the omission to do something which a reasonably careful person would do, or the lack of the usual ordinary care and caution in the performance of an act usually and ordinarily exercised by a person under similar circumstances and conditions.'"
Kunzweiler did not give any further remarks on the unusual nature of the case.
Bates could not be reached for comment Sunday or Monday. He previously told the Tulsa World newspaper that his attorney had advised him to not comment.
Although a mixup involving a Taser and a handgun is unusual, it's not unheard of.
In 2009, a transit officer claimed a similar mistake when he killed Oscar Grant III with a single gunshot in Oakland.
A prosecutor charged the transit officer, Johannes Mehserle, with intentional murder. A jury found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter, a charge indicating negligence. Mehserle was sentenced to two years in prison.
Bates had been a Tulsa city police officer for one year in the 1960s, and officials said he had been volunteering as a trained, part-time reserve for the department since 2008 and had been certified to use a Taser.
Those revelations drew criticism from Harris' family this weekend when the Tulsa County sheriff's office decided it would investigate the case itself rather than hand it off to another agency and recommended that Bates not face charges when the department referred the case to the district attorney's office late Friday.
"We do not believe that it is reasonable for a man who claims to have all the necessary training to mistake a pistol for a Taser," Harris' family members said in a statement issued Sunday through their attorney, Daniel Smolen. "We do not believe it is reasonable for a 73-year-old insurance executive to be involved in a dangerous undercover sting operation.... We do not believe it is reasonable -- or responsible -- for [the sheriff's office] to accept gifts from a wealthy citizen who wants to be [a] 'pay to play' cop."
Before charges were announced Monday, a former Oklahoma County district attorney and a dean emeritus for the University of Oklahoma College of Law, Andy Coats, also questioned the sheriff's department's determination that the killing was not criminal.
"Sheriff's guys aren't going to turn on their own people, they would find a way to call it excusable if they can," Coats, who was Oklahoma County's prosecutor from 1976 to 1980, said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. "I'd really have to take a look at it, but it'd be hard not to think of it as at least a negligent homicide."
Coats added that Bates' involvement in the arrest as a reserve deputy was "pretty unusual," and questioned whether he should have been armed.
For sheriff's departments that have such positions, supporters say so-called reserve deputies can keep down costs by donating their time to help with less intensive police work, such as helping out at auto crash sites or at public events.
On Sunday, Tulsa County Sheriff's Maj. Shannon Clark defended Bates' role in the department in an interview with The Times, saying it's "not uncustomary for skilled reserves to be in certain roles" such as the sheriff's violent crimes task force.
Nor was it unusual that Bates had political ties to the sheriff, whom he has known for 40 years, Clark said.
"You have to remember, this is Oklahoma," Clark said, explaining that it's not unusual for reserve deputies to make donations to the sheriff's political campaign or to the department. "It's their way of giving back.... Nobody would criticize if he gave to the Red Cross."
Bates has been a reserve deputy since 2008, Clark said. "People thought he bought his way into the reserve program, and that's not true."
After the sheriff's department completed its investigation, it brought in Tulsa Police Sgt. Jim Clark to review its findings as a private consultant, said Maj. Shannon Clark, who is not related to the sergeant.
Police Sgt. Jim Clark defended Bates to reporters Saturday, declaring him blameless and citing a scientific theory he called "slips and capture" to explain how Bates could have confused a gun with a Taser. The theory suggests that complicated and fast-moving situations can cause someone to do the opposite of something they intended to do.
"It is my opinion, after reviewing all the facts and circumstances of this case, [the state's excusable homicide statute] was applicable in this incident," Sgt. Jim Clark said. "Reserve Deputy Bates did not commit a crime. Reserve Deputy Bates was a victim, a true victim, of 'slips and capture.' There's no other determination I could come to."
In Oklahoma, excusable homicide is a killing "committed by accident and misfortune in doing any lawful act, by lawful means, with usual and ordinary caution, and without any unlawful intent."
The district attorney's charge, by comparison, accuses Bates of being careless.
Sgt. Jim Clark could not be reached for comment Sunday or Monday.
Body camera video released by the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office on Saturday shows a deputy tackling Harris in the street.
Moments later, Bates shouts, "Taser!" -- but fires a single gunshot instead, the video shows.
"I shot him; I'm sorry," says Bates, whose gun falls to the ground.
"Oh ... man, he shot me!" Harris can be heard saying, and then moaning as law enforcement officers surround him.
The video does not clearly show the officers' faces.
"You ... ran!" one of the men shouts at Harris. "Shut ... up!"
The video cuts out shortly after the shooting, so whatever happened next is not recorded. Officials said that the deputy did not turn off the device but that it stopped functioning for some reason.
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