A San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy shot and killed 44-year-old Victorville resident Lawrence Harris inside a home on Steeplechase Road in January 2025, and body-camera footage of the confrontation was only made public on Friday. The video shows a deputy repeatedly ordering Harris to drop a handgun before firing four shots as Harris kept moving up a staircase.
Domestic Violence Call Turned Deadly
The shooting happened on Jan. 17, 2025, in the 14800 block of Steeplechase Road in Victorville, according to a report on the bodycam release. Deputies responded after a report of domestic violence, and the encounter escalated once they found Harris inside the residence. The sheriff's department said Harris was armed with a handgun, refused to put it down, and began walking toward a part of the home where it was unclear if anyone else was present.
Bodycam video shows the deputy shouting repeatedly for Harris to drop the gun as he climbed the stairs. The deputy ultimately fired four shots. Paramedics rushed Harris to a nearby hospital, where he died from his wounds; no deputies were reported injured, the same report states.
Gun Found Without a Magazine
A detail that has drawn scrutiny since the shooting involves the condition of the weapon Harris was holding. The handgun did not have a magazine inserted into it at the time of the shooting, though a loaded magazine was later found in an upstairs bedroom, per the same report. The footage shows the deputy firing as Harris continued up the staircase.
The bodycam footage from the deputy involved was released 21 months and 6 days after the shooting, on Friday, Oct. 23. By then, Harris's family had already filed a lawsuit against the sheriff's department over his death, and the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office had not yet completed its report on whether the shooting was legally justified, as noted in the bodycam release coverage. Victorville Daily Press also published coverage of the body-camera release.
A Pattern of Costly Outcomes for the County
Harris's case is not the only recent deputy shooting to draw legal consequences for San Bernardino County. A unanimous federal jury this year awarded the family of Inland Empire resident Antonio Garza more than $51 million over his 2023 death in a separate deputy shooting, according to CBS News Los Angeles. That incident began on Feb. 5, 2023, when deputies responded to a report of arson, and the Riverside County District Attorney's Office later cleared both deputies involved of criminal liability. The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said at the time that the jury's judgment did not reflect any wrongdoing by the deputies involved.
Whether the Harris case will follow a similar legal path remains unknown. The San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office, which is tasked with determining whether the shooting was legally justified, had not finished that review as of the bodycam release, and no outcome of the family's civil lawsuit has been reported.
