Joliet Police Killing Of Victor Harris: Officers Were In The Right

JOLIET, IL — Last July 17, two Joliet police officers took cover behind their respective car doors as they fired multiple gunshots at criminal suspect Victor T. Harris as he emerged from a nearby shooting in his east side neighborhood. As Harris pointed his gun at officers Hawk Haiduke and Jason Banning, officials said, they shot at him. Harris collapsed in the street, and his gun fell out of his hand and into Bennett Avenue.

A Joliet Fire Department ambulance was called, and Harris died the following day. He was 28.

Last week, the Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow notified the Will-Grundy Major Crimes Task Force that both Joliet police officers, Haiduke and Banning, acted appropriately and that no criminal charges would be brought against either one of them.

Kevin McQuaid, commander of the Plainfield Police Department and leader of the task force, told Joliet Patch that he fully expected the State's Attorney's Office to reach the same conclusion that he and fellow members of the task force had reached: that Banning and Haiduke were justified in their use of deadly force against Harris.

CONTENT WARNING: Video contains graphic footage of a shooting and may be disturbing to some viewers:

In January, Joliet Patch reported that the toxicology reports showed Harris was under the influence of PCP, plus marijuana, at the time of his death.

The Joliet police officers, riding together in an unmarked police car, were responding to the gunshots fired incident around Elmwood Avenue when they encountered Harris, who was the shooting suspect, running toward them in the middle of the street, clutching his gun.

Because Harris refused to put down his gun as the Joliet police officers ordered him to do, they shot him, according to McQuaid's investigation.

Harris was one of two men fatally shot by the Joliet police in 2023.

Jamal Smith, who was one of the Black Lives Matter demonstrators who got involved in a scuffle with Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk in 2020, resulting in an out of court federal settlement, was shot in the neck on April 8, 2023, by Joliet officers Erick Gutierrez and Christopher McClinton after they drove to Lois Place apartments for an overnight domestic disturbance.

Last August, Smith, 31, died of his gunshot wounds.

In the Smith shooting, Glasgow's office also agreed that Officers Gutierrez and McClinton were justified in their use of deadly force against Smith.

According to the Joliet police body camera footage, as they walk closer along the sidewalk, Smith starts yelling in the distance, "You called the police?" In the video, as Smith stands outside the apartment building entrance, he can be heard firing his gun at least two times. Gutierrez and McClinton open fire on Smith, shooting him in the back of the neck and also in his leg.

When Smith is shot, the video shows his gun fall out of his hand and land on the concrete stoop just a few feet away from his body. For several minutes, numerous Joliet police officers, led by Gutierrez taking charge, provide emergency medical attention to Smith, as they wait for the Joliet Fire Department ambulance crew to arrive.

CONTENT WARNING: Video contains graphic footage of a shooting and may be disturbing to some viewers: