Del City police Capt. Randy Trent Harrison targeted 18-year-old Dane Scott well beyond professional bounds, a prosecutor told the jury during opening statements Tuesday morning.
"An officer, in this case defendant Randy Harrison, crossed a line from legitimate use of force ... I'm going to ask you to find him guilty of manslaughter in this trial," Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said.
"No weapon, no knife, no gun. He didn't appear to be a threat," Prater said of Scott, who was shot in the back.
In November 2011, Harrison had arrested Scott, reportedly selling drugs near Del City High School, and the two had crossed paths on at least two other occasions.
"It was something other than professional. It became personal," Prater said.
But defense attorney Doug Friesen told the jury, "Dane Scott is dead as a result of the choices Dane Scott made," and that Harrison was doing his sworn duty on March 14, 2012, when an altercation turned into a deadly shooting after a police chase ended near SE 15 and Interstate 35 in Oklahoma City.
"He had to act to protect the citizens of his city," Friesen said.
Friesen said that when Scott fled after being disarmed of a handgun, Harrison thought he was trying to pull a second gun from his pants.
"Capt. Harrison can't let him go to harm other people, so he fires another shot," Friesen said.
And after the fatal shot was fired, Harrison kept saying "don't die on me" as he administered CPR, Friesen said.
Del City police Lt. Brad Rule, who was at the scene the day Scott was shot, said that Harrison seemed upset after the shooting.
Rule also testified that Harrison was making a push to clean up drug trafficking in the city, and that he never saw Harrison act unprofessionally or neglect his duties as a police captain.
But Rule also testified that in his experience, he had never arrested someone with more than one gun on their person and was not trained for such scenarios.
Rule also told the jury that Harrison had sent out a "hot sheet," or a type of electronic police memo, when Scott turned 18 years old, something Rule said was not common practice.
The prosecution ended Tuesday with testimony from 17-year-old John Lockett, who was in the car with Scott on the day of the shooting.
Lockett and Scott quickly became friends when they moved into the same neighborhood and frequently smoked marijuana together, he testified.
Lockett said Scott had gotten the handgun days before being shot, and that when Harrison attempted to pull them over, Scott became scared and upset.
"Dane just started to panic. He pulled a gun out and the weed out. At that point, we all knew what was up. Dane was going to jail," Lockett testified.
"I was scared when I saw it was the same officer messing with us the past few weeks," he said.
Lockett said that he saw a handgun clip on the ground, and that Scott's back was turned to the officer when he was shot.
If convicted, Harrison faces four years to life in prison.
Copyright 2013 - The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
