Death by Cop 2021-2025
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Tyler Martell Scott Harris
Age : 19
Gender : Male
Race : Black
Date : 08/10/2025
Location : Intersection of Popp's Ferry Road and Cedar Lake Road
City : Biloxi
County : Harrison
State : Mississippi
Agency : D’Iberville Police Department, Biloxi Police Department
Officer(s) :Not Disclosed
Cause of Death : Vehicle
Event : Driver killed by police chase crash
OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :
On 08/10/2025, 19-year-old Tyler Martell Scott Harris was killed when a vehicle D’Iberville police were pursuing crashed at Popp’s Ferry Road and Cedar Lake Road in Biloxi. Harrison County Coroner Brian Switzer pronounced Harris dead at the scene.
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Harris was born on 06/06/2006. His obituary identifies his parents as Tameka C. Harris Magee and Henry B. Morris and states that he was born in Covington, Louisiana, grew up in Biloxi and later attended Bogalusa High School before earning his high-school diploma through Penn Foster University at age 16.
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The specific initiating reason for the attempted stop was that D’Iberville police identified the white Hyundai Harris was driving as a vehicle reported stolen from Biloxi earlier that same day. A D’Iberville officer saw the Hyundai and attempted to stop it. Harris continued driving away while police pursued.
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The pursuit traveled from D’Iberville into Biloxi. At approximately 5:15-5:30 p.m., Harris reached the intersection of Popp’s Ferry Road and Cedar Lake Road. The Hyundai collided with a truck that was turning onto Cedar Lake Road. The impact sent the Hyundai rolling through the air before it came to rest in a bank parking lot.
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Harris was killed in the crash. A passenger riding with Harris survived and was transported to a hospital with injuries described as non-life-threatening. Two people in the truck were not seriously injured.
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The pursuit occurred in a heavily developed commercial and residential portion of Biloxi and culminated in a high-energy collision at a major intersection. The available reporting does not identify the pursuing D’Iberville officer, the speeds reached during the pursuit, its exact distance or duration, whether a supervisor authorized or monitored it, whether officers attempted stop sticks or other intervention tactics, or whether D’Iberville police considered terminating the pursuit as it entered Biloxi.
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D’Iberville Police Department has a documented history of pursuing drivers for offenses substantially less serious than the stolen-vehicle allegation in Harris’s case. On 11/14/2024, less than nine months before Harris was killed, D’Iberville police pursued a driver suspected of shoplifting from a Lowe’s. That pursuit traveled through three cities before ending when the pursued Ford Fusion collided with a truck and trailer in Ocean Springs.
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D’Iberville police also conducted an earlier fatal pursuit in 2015. On 07/30/2015, officers pursued 24-year-old Marshall Smith after a fight at a D’Iberville restaurant and a collision in the parking lot. The pursuit ended less than a mile away on Quave Road in St. Martin when Smith lost control and struck a tree. His passenger and mother, 48-year-old Millicent Sue Smith, was killed.
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Thus, Harris’s death was not the department’s first fatality arising from a vehicle pursuit. D’Iberville police had previously experienced a pursuit in which a passenger was killed and, less than a year before Harris’s death, another multi-city pursuit over an alleged shoplifting offense ended in a collision.
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The department also has documented misconduct history involving its personnel. In 2011, D’Iberville officers Michael Mitchell and Justin Grafton were accused of assaulting a private citizen while the officers were attending a law-enforcement training seminar in Oxford, Mississippi. Oxford police issued both officers summonses for simple assault.
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D’Iberville Police Chief Wayne Payne placed Mitchell and Grafton on administrative leave and opened an internal misconduct investigation. Both officers subsequently resigned, at which point the department closed the internal investigation.
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The precise circumstances under which D’Iberville officers decided to initiate and continue the pursuit that killed Harris remain important because the vehicle had been reported stolen earlier that day, but the available accounts do not establish whether police knew Harris’s identity before initiating the stop, whether Harris was alleged to have personally stolen the vehicle, or whether police were pursuing solely because the vehicle itself returned as stolen.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The D’Iberville police officer or officers who pursued Tyler Harris have not been publicly identified.
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The department had prior institutional experience with the lethal consequences of pursuits. Its 2015 pursuit of Marshall Smith ended in a crash that killed passenger Millicent Sue Smith, and its November 2024 pursuit of a person accused of shoplifting traveled through multiple municipalities before ending in another collision.
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D’Iberville Police Department also previously lost two officers through resignation during an internal misconduct investigation. Michael Mitchell and Justin Grafton resigned in 2011 after being accused of assaulting a civilian while attending police training in Oxford.
SOURCE LINKS :
https://www.wxxv25.com/biloxi-police-one-dead-after-sunday-evening-police-chase-ends-in-crash/
https://www.wxxv25.com/victim-identified-in-sunday-evening-police-chase-that-ended-in-fatal-crash/
https://www.sunherald.com/news/local/crime/article311632788.html
https://www.affordablefh.com/obituary/Tyler-ScottHarris
https://gcwire.com/three-city-police-chase-over-shoplifter-ends-in-ocean-springs-crash/
https://www.wlox.com/story/29680394/diberville-woman-identified-as-victim-of-fatal-crash/
https://www.wlox.com/story/14688228/two-diberville-officers-under-investigation/
https://www.wlox.com/story/14736595/diberville-officers-resign-amid-misconduct-investigation/
