Man Injured By Deputy May Not Have Recognized Police

The lawyer for the family of an Edmonds man seriously injured by a King County sheriff's deputy said the man who was hurt may not have recognized the two men chasing him as deputies.

The victim, 29-year old Christopher Harris, has not regained consciousness since he was tackled head-first into a wall by a deputy in Belltown early Sunday morning in what police are saying was a case of mistaken identity.

Seattle police said the incident began when a woman pointed Harris out to police as a suspect in a bloody fight. Harris ran from the two deputies and was tackled. Police later ruled Harris out as a suspect in the fight.

The question of why Harris ran from officers remains unanswered. Harris' family attorney Sim Osborn said witnesses who saw Harris being tackled didn't realize the deputies chasing him were actually police officers.

"There were two eyewitnesses who have told us they were 15 feet away when Chris was hit. They didn’t recognize these men as police officers, and they said, ‘What are you doing? Are you the police?’” said Osborn.

Witnesses told Osborn they thought Harris didn't understand why he was being chased or who was chasing him.

Tuesday night, Harris' family released a photo of the victim in his hospital bed at Harborview Medical Center. Harris has tubes to help him breathe and others to reduce the swelling of his brain. A nursing supervisor at the hospital told KIRO 7 he is in serious condition.

Meanwhile, the King County Sheriff's Office maintains that the officers identified themselves as police when they told Harris to stop.

The deputy who tackled Harris, 26-year old Matthew Paul, has been with Seattle police for four years.

Paul will answer investigators' questions about the incident on Wednesday morning.