Three weeks after her husband was struck and killed by a Baltimore City Police officer while riding his scooter through an intersection in the Broadway East area, Vernia Lee Harrell told a throng of reporters that their grandchildren were still asking: “Where’s Pop Pop?”
At a news conference in an Owings Mills law office, Harrell held up a locket around her neck with her husband’s picture in it, lamenting the fact that it was all she had left of him. She was destined now, she said, to “grow old by myself.”
“We don’t have no future at all anymore ... We were together for 34 years, married for 21, and in a blink of an eye, because you want to speed race, that’s wiped out,” Harrell said, referring to the officer who killed her husband as tears stained the corners of her eyes.
Harrell’s attorney, Alex A. Binder of the Killian Law Group, has vowed to continue pressing for answers about that officer, Alexis Acosta, who had been on the force for about a year and a half before he struck and killed 58-year old Terry Harrell on June 21 at 12:40 p.m.
Looming questions remain, Binder said, including just how fast was Acosta driving when he ran a red light at the intersection of East Biddle Street and North Montford Avenue while en route to a report of a knifing.
“Mr. Harrell did not deserve to die in the way that he did. He should be alive today. Policies and procedures exist for a reason,” Binder told reporters at a news conference.
Binder also raised questions about Acosta’s duty status, saying that state investigators had informed him on Friday that the officer was still on “active duty.” A Baltimore Police Department spokesperson, however, said, “per agency protocol, Officer Acosta has been placed on routine administrative duties, pending the outcome of the investigation.”
The Maryland Attorney General’s Office has released two statements on the incident, which is being investigated by the Independent Investigations Division, created last year to investigate incidents in which civilians are killed by police officers.
Ms. Harrell described her husband as a man with a “kind smile” who cared deeply for his own grandchildren, as well as kids from his neighborhood. She said he had worked as a chef and in home improvement, but had retired and was collecting disability payments. He was on his way home from a therapist’s appointment when he was struck and killed, she added. Mr. Harrell’s daughter, Candice Holden, was too emotional to speak to reporters at the conference.
Investigators with the Maryland Attorney General’s Office have issued terse statements so far as they investigate the incident, but have released two videos showing the crash. In one video, taken by a CityWatch video camera, Mr. Harrell can be seen proceeding toward the intersection, with a green light, when the police cruiser strikes him. The cruisers had its lights and sirens activated, officials have said.
The other video released, taken by Acosta’s body camera, shows only the impact to the windshield, but Binder said the footage also informed them that the officer ran “two previous red lights and a stop sign at a high rate of speed” before colliding with Harrell.
A third video, not released by state investigators but obtained independently by Harrell’s legal team, shows the aftermath of the impact. In that video, the crash is not seen, but Harrell can be observed in midair after the collision. He then lands on his stomach and is unresponsive as witnesses rush over to help.
Binder said he is still waiting to hear from the medical examiner about the extent of Harrell’s injuries. Harrell died two days after he was struck, on June 23.
Binder said that Harrell “had absolutely no reason to think twice about proceeding straight through the intersection.” Acosta, he added, “showed no regard for the safety of the residents of Baltimore City and the rules designed to protect those residents.”
“He failed to slow down, to stop and check if any of those intersections were safe to proceed, and he did not clear any of those intersections prior to proceeding,” Binder said.
The attorney added Baltimore Police Department policy advises officers to slow down and check intersections before proceeding, even when lights and sirens are on.
Ms. Harrell said her husband loved to eat, especially banana pudding and anything served up at a cookout.
“The last thing he said, which I wish we had done, was that he wanted more family pictures,” Harrell said. “And that’s what we don’t have. That’s the part that hurts. We don’t have that future anymore at all.”
