The teen was shot in the heart, lungs and intestines before being pelted with rubber bullets and having a police dog sicced on him. The officers involved have so far escaped legal consequences in the teen’s death.
But since Harris was killed on Jan. 11, 2019, time has done little to heal the wounds his family has suffered. For Harris’ father, Roland Harris, justice is what can give him peace.
“The thing that the City of Phoenix doesn’t realize is that even if the civil case doesn’t go through, I’m not going to stop. If you want me to back off, fire the officers who murdered my son. Give my son the justice he deserves,” Harris said during a rally in front of the Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. Courthouse in downtown Phoenix on Sept. 13.
Surrounded by representatives from the Anti Police-Terror Project, Black Lives Matter Grassroots, friends and his attorneys, Harris announced a renewed effort to have his son’s case heard before a jury.
In 2020, Harris sued the city and the officers involved in his son’s death and alleged that their actions were unconstitutional. The lawsuit was thrown out by a U.S. District Court judge in Phoenix who ruled that Arizona law permits officers to use deadly force if they believe it's necessary to prevent a felon armed with a deadly weapon from fleeing.
At the time, the Harris family attorney, Tom Horne, used phrasing in the lawsuit that resulted in its dismissal, according to the Arizona Republic. By the time the Harrises found a new attorney, the deadline to revise the suit had passed and they were left without recourse. Horne is the former Arizona Attorney General and current State Superintendent of Schools.
The officer named in the case, Kristopher Bertz, countersued Harris for $40,000 to cover his legal fees.
“The city wants you to be in the headspace that this lawsuit is about money. It’s not. It’s about justice for the people who can’t speak for themselves,” Harris told Phoenix New Times on Sept. 13.
The rally was held ahead of the family’s attorney, Steve Benedetto's, having a hearing before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a chance to rework and refile the lawsuit. The initial hearing addressed the underlying legal and procedural issues that caused the original suit to be dismissed. The next ruling in the lawsuit, however, is likely months away.
Still, it is a step in the right direction, according to Harris.
“I want Jacob’s case heard in front of a jury because I believe there is no way a reasonable person would see the officers’ actions that day as justifiable,” Harris said.
"We're standing here right now, and we know that we will be standing here again tomorrow. Because this system is not broken, it's a system of injustice. It's a system that denies Black and brown people what they're owed. It denies them their due process, where police officers can jump out of a car like cowboys and be judge, jury and executioner," Brother Tremikus Muhammad said at the Sept. 13 rally.
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"The police spin tales about justice when they pull the trigger. They are nothing more than mercenaries trained and designed to hunt our youth and destroy them," poet Percy Christian said. "Our blood is barely worth a dime to these courts that charge for concessions and pay for accountability with pennies."
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"They were just kids who may have made the wrong choices. Yet these officers felt someone needed to die for an alleged crime they sat back and watched them commit. How is that even fair," Teresa Green wrote in a letter read by Refilwe Gqajela of the Anti Police-Terror Project. Gqajela also emceed the rally.
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A memorial for people killed by Phoenix police officers from 2014 to 2023 was set up under a nearby tree. "When you look at the list of names that are under this tree, that's real convenient that it is under a tree because we are people who have had a history of being lynched and hung from trees. It doesn't fall on us. It doesn't fall on deaf ears," Brother Tremikus Muhammad said.
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The night Jacob Harris died, the 19-year-old and three friends — Jeremiah Triplett, then 20 years old, Sariah Busani, 19, and Johnny Reed, 14 — robbed a Whataburger. Reed, Triplett and Busani (the Phoenix Three) were all charged with first-degree murder in Harris’ death under an Arizona law that holds people responsible for a death if they are committing a felony at the time.
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The Harris family attorneys looked on as impassioned speakers called for justice for Jacob Harris and the Phoenix Three.
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"What is clear in our experience supporting and advocating alongside these families is that Jacob's case is not an outlier of a working system. Rather, it is another heinous example of a horrific pattern that exists within the policing system and specifically within the Phoenix Police Department" said Rebecca Denis of Poder in Action.
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