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Dwayne D. Harris

Age : 31

Gender : Male

Race : Black

Date : 08/08/2025

Location : Guam Parkway and Meadowcreek Road

City : Norfolk

County : Norfolk

State : Virginia

Agency : Norfolk Police Department, Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during arrest

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/08/2025, at approximately 12:10 p.m., Norfolk Police Department officers responded to a residence in the 1700 block of Cornell Avenue after receiving a report of a residential burglary in progress. Officers encountered 31-year-old Dwayne D. Harris and began pursuing him after he drove away from the area. The vehicle pursuit was brief and ended approximately two blocks away at the intersection of Guam Parkway and Meadowcreek Road.
Norfolk Police initially gave the public a substantially different account of what happened immediately before officers killed Harris than what was subsequently shown by a resident's video. Police Chief Mark Talbot initially said Harris got out of his vehicle armed with a gun, pointed the weapon at officers and was then shot. The department's written release similarly alleged that Harris pointed a weapon at officers after the pursuit ended.
Bystander video obtained after the shooting contradicted a significant portion of that initial police account. The recording showed Harris still inside the vehicle when officers surrounded it. An officer approached the driver's side, smashed the driver's window, and police began firing while Harris remained inside the vehicle. Harris's family challenged the department's version of events and demanded release of the officers' body-camera recordings to establish what officers could see and whether Harris actually pointed a firearm at them.
After the video became public, Chief Talbot acknowledged that his initial description was inaccurate and apologized. Talbot said he had based his public statements on preliminary information supplied to him by officers and that he had not yet reviewed the body-camera recordings when he made those statements. The chief said the initial version of a critical incident can change as additional evidence is examined.
Police nevertheless continued to allege that Harris possessed and pointed a firearm at officers immediately before they opened fire. The available bystander recording does not establish the officers' claimed view of the weapon from every angle, but it establishes that Harris had not exited the vehicle as police originally claimed when officers began shooting. Officers struck Harris multiple times, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Harris's relatives said he had been experiencing a mental health crisis before his death and had previously sought mental-health treatment in Florida. His aunts, Catrina Harris and Deborah Rogers-Elston, said he had no prior criminal history and described their primary concern after viewing the civilian recording as determining exactly what happened during the final seconds of the encounter.
The Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation assumed responsibility for the independent investigation into the shooting. Norfolk Police placed the officers who fired on administrative duty pending that investigation. The Norfolk Police public case page still does not identify the shooting officers, and searches of subsequent public reporting located for this update did not establish their names.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.norfolk.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=9619
https://twitter.com/NorfolkPD/status/1953886638276510088