TULSA, Okla.—Prosecutors charged a reserve sheriff’s deputy with manslaughter Monday in the death of a man who was fatally shot as he lay on the ground at the officer’s feet.
Tulsa County prosecutors filed a second-degree manslaughter charge against 73-year-old Robert Bates.
A police investigator has said Bates, who is white, thought he drew a stun gun, not his handgun, when he fired at 44-year-old Eric Harris, who was black, in the April 2 incident.
Bates is charged with second-degree manslaughter “involving culpable negligence,” Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said in a statement.
In this photo provided by the Tulsa County, Oklahoma, Sheriff's Office is Tulsa County reserve deputy Robert Bates. Police say Bates, a 73-year-old white reserve deputy, thought he was holding a stun gun, not his handgun, when he fired at 44-year-old Eric Harris in an April 2 incident. Harris, who is black, was treated by medics at the scene and died in a Tulsa hospital. Tulsa County Sheriff's Office via AP
