Tacoma: New evidence in Ronald Amir Harris case
Tumwater, WA – Members of the Tacoma Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression held a press conference outside the Washington State Office of Independent Investigation (WA OII) on Friday, October 23, to urge the WA OII to investigate the death of Ronald Amir Harris.
TacAARPR members delivered a petition with over with over 450 signatures to the office, as well as new evidence obtained by Ronald Amir Harris’s family.
“The county didn't do an investigation that produced really any type of evidence that could conclusively concur with a suicide,” said Christian Tullar. “And that's why petitioning the state is so important here.”
Ronald Harris was found dead in his Pierce County jail cell before his trial on May 2, 2022. The county’s sheriff’s office ruled it a suicide, but refused to release key evidence to Ronald’s father, Ray Charles Harris. Concerned community members wrote in over 60 letters to the WA OII urging them to open an investigation into this death. When TacAARPR members met with WA OII on Oct 8, the office would not take up the investigation unless Ronald’s family and community were able to provide new evidence.
“My son did not commit suicide,” stated Ray Harris, “My son told me three days before his death, he said, Dad, if something happens to me, I did not kill myself.”
The petition’s two main demands were for Pierce County to release key evidence to Ronald Harris’s family, and for WA OII to do a full, transparent investigation into the death. The first demand was met earlier this week, when Harris’s family obtained new evidence by appealing directly to the county medical examiner’s office. This came after almost a year of denials by the sheriff’s office and the family’s FOIA requests. According to documents available on the TacAARPR website, the toxicology report, autopsy report and autopsy photos were never entered as evidence in the original suicide investigation.
“The WA OII gets 14 million tax dollars a year to investigate deaths like Ronald’s, yet the onus is put on us to find new evidence,” said TacAARPR member Moon Gosserand. “And when we do present new evidence, they have the power to just dismiss it, like they’ve done on other cases. But we won’t let them dismiss Ronald’s case without a fight!”
Gosserand was referring to the cases of Jason Hale and Andrea Churna, where new evidence, including new video and testimony, was dismissed by the WA OII. Since forming in 2021, the WA OII has never completed a “prior investigation.” According to their website, all eight existing prior investigation cases were either denied, passed to another body, or still in progress. TacAARPR members affirmed that despite this track record, they would continue the community investigation to obtain even more new evidence.
“One of the pieces of evidence that really worried us was in what’s called a CAD log,” Tullar continued, referring to the computer-aided dispatch log, which was released to TacAARPR via a FOIA request earlier this month. “In the CAD log we had seen the term hanging, and, when you're Black in America, especially when you're a Black man, the term hanging has a very particular racialized connotation. It instantly makes us think of the type of political and racial repression against Black people. And Pierce County has a long history of oppression and neglect and violence and brutality against Black men and Black people and people who are in the prison and jail system here.”
“My son's going to get justice,” Ray Harris re-stated. TacAARPR and the Harris family confirmed they will not back down until a full, transparent investigation has been completed.