Man who witnessed deadly Arlington shooting gives limited interview

ARLINGTON, Texas - A man who was in the car when Arlington police killed a suspect last month spoke publicly about what happened for the first time. But his remarks were limited.

Terrence Harmon watched as an Arlington officer shot and killed 24-year-old O’Shea. He spoke to FOX 4 News Tuesday with his attorney.

"I want to know who shot him. Why? What were the reasons? What was the probable cause?” he said. “To this day 30 days later, nobody has yet come to talk to me."

On Sept. 1, Harmon was the passenger in an SUV that Terry was driving. Body camera video from the incident shows Arlington police questioning the two men during a traffic stop. An officer tells Terry she smells marijuana and that she is going to search his SUV.

About 10 minutes into the traffic stop as another officer stands on the passenger side, the video appears to show Terry rolling up both front windows, starting the SUV and begin to drive off. The officer grabs the passenger side window and yells for Terry to stop. The officer holds onto the side of the SUV and fires several shots, hitting Terry.

Police said they later found a handgun and drugs inside the SUV when they searched it.

Harmon's attorney, Lee Merritt, would not let him talk about the drugs or gun. He only said they have not been tied to Harmon. FOX 4 also asked Harmon about the timeline of events leading up to the shooting.

“If you don't mind, I'm going to reroute that question,” Merritt said. “I'm going to ask him to give a timeline of what he's experienced since."

"Clearly from the body camera, you see him yelling at Terry to stop driving the car. Can you kind of address that what we see is him clearly driving off when the officer is telling him to stop?” FOX 4 reporter Brandon Todd asked Harmon.

“And I'm not going to allow him to address that,” Merritt said.

Harmon and his attorney maintain that the SUV only went into motion because the officer shot Terry.

"The officer seen that he already hit him. O’Shae had no control of the car,” Harmon said.

“The body camera shows the car already in motion after he starts shooting. We've watched it several times,” Brandon Todd replied.

“You're making that conclusion,” Merritt said. “Mr. Harmon has just stated, and I get that you may disagree with him, that before the car was fully in motion the shots were fired."

Harmon did address how he managed to get the rolling SUV to finally stop.

“And I moved his leg off the gas,” Harmon recalled. “And I reach down with my left hand to press the brake, and I put the car in park. And that's how I got the car to stop."

Harmon was at an Arlington NAACP meeting along with an Arlington police commander Tuesday night. He brought questions for police.

He wants to know the name of the officer who shot his friend and why it hasn’t been released. The Arlington police chief said that name hasn’t been released because there have already been threats against the officer.

Arlington police also dispute Harmon’s claim that no one has talked to him about what happened. The department said he has been interviewed.

FOX 4 was invited to Tuesday’s NAACP meeting but was later told TV news cameras were banned. The NAACP explained the police department’s command staff would only agree to attend as long as news cameras were not allowed into the meeting.