U.S.
Tulsa County Sheriff's Office / AP
Oklahoma prosecutors on Monday charged a sheriff's reserve deputy with second-degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a black man this month in Tulsa. The case is the most recent in a series of police killings of unarmed black men that have raised questions about race relations and policing.
Reserve Deputy Robert Bates, 73, who is white, fatally shot Eric Harris, 44, who was black, on April 2. Bates thought he was using a Taser instead of his gun, the Tulsa Sheriff's Office said of the incident, seen in a video released over the weekend.
Bates is charged with second-degree manslaughter "involving culpable negligence," Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said in a 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 said.
No attorney for Bates was listed on the charge sheet. Legal experts said second-degree manslaughter in Oklahoma can bring two to four years in prison.
In the video, a man Oklahoma authorities identified as Bates is heard saying, "Oh, I shot him. I'm sorry."
Police were pursuing Harris on suspicion of trying to sell a gun illegally to an undercover officer in a police sting. He fled the scene and was being chased.
As a Tulsa County deputy subdues the suspect, a voice identified as Bates says, "Taser, Taser." A gunshot is then heard.
The suspect is heard screaming, "He shot me. Oh, my God."
A deputy tells Harris to shut up.
Harris, who said in the video he was having trouble breathing, later died at a Tulsa hospital.
The suspect's family requested the video, which was recorded during the arrest using a sunglass camera. After the incident, family members spoke out on social media.
"My brothers soul cryes [sic] out as he lays face down on the ground and shot to death," wrote the victim's brother, Andre Harris, on Facebook. "Is this the system we want?"
The Tulsa County Sheriff's Department uses volunteer reserve deputies who have full powers and authorities. Bates works as an insurance executive and worked on the Tulsa Sheriff's Violent Crimes Task Force.
He was named reserve deputy of the year in 2011, according to the Sheriff's Office website.
Last week a white South Carolina officer was arrested and charged with murder after a video showed him fatally shooting an unarmed black man in the back.
There have been several other police killings over the past year in cities such as New York, Cleveland and Ferguson, Missouri, generating nationwide protests over excessive use of police force against black men.
Al Jazeera and wire services
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