A DeKalb County police officer bonded out of jail Thursday and is accused of “accidentally” firing his gun while arresting a 19-year-old man earlier this week, officials and court documents say.
The arrestee had complied with the officer’s order to get on the ground and lie on his stomach, and was in a prone position with his hands behind his back when he was fatally shot, an arrest affidavit filed Wednesday states.
Derrick Harris Jr., 37, has since been terminated from the police department and was booked into the DeKalb jail at 10:35 a.m. Thursday, the agency said. He faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct. He was released from custody on an $11,200 bond, records show.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reached out to Harris’ attorney for comment.
It’s the first arrest this year connected to one of at least 48 officer-involved shootings the GBI has been asked to investigate in 2026, agency spokesperson Sara Lue told the AJC.
In a statement Wednesday evening, DeKalb CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson called the death a tragedy and said the county remains committed to transparency and integrity. Harris first joined DeKalb police in 2014 before voluntarily resigning in 2020, Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council records show. He returned to the department in March of this year.
“We understand no one is above the law and that accountability is essential to maintaining public trust,” Cochran-Johnson said.
The shooting stemmed from a police investigation into an armed robbery of a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier.
Authorities first spoke with the shooting victim, Seth Jayden Eccles, as part of that investigation Tuesday afternoon. Police determined Eccles was a person of interest in the case, but he was allowed to walk away after speaking with U.S. Postal Inspection Service agents, the GBI said.
Law enforcement later discovered Eccles had an active arrest warrant for a “previous” armed robbery, Harris’ affidavit clarified. The GBI did not provide details on that warrant and officials have not released information on the previous incident Eccles was tied to.
USPIS agents and DeKalb officers again located Eccles, who ran away and hid in a nearby wooded area, the GBI said. While searching for Eccles, the GBI said 911 calls came in around 7 p.m. about a “suspicious person moving through the backyards of homes” in the Avondale Estates area.
About 45 minutes later, the state agency said officer Harris located Eccles in a backyard and gave him verbal commands at gunpoint.
“Eccles complied with Officer Harris’ commands. Officer Harris then took Eccles into custody. During the arrest, Officer Harris fired his gun, hitting Eccles,” according to the GBI.
According to Harris’ affidavit, he had his firearm in one hand and the handcuffs in the other. The affidavit states the killing was “without any intention,” but that the accidental discharge resulted in Eccles’ injury and death.
Officers and emergency personnel provided life-saving efforts at the scene before Eccles was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, the agency confirmed.
An autopsy will be performed by the DeKalb Medical Examiner’s Office.
DeKalb police confirmed in a statement they were aware of the arrest.
“This incident has had a profound impact on everyone involved. My thoughts and prayers remain with the family of Seth Jayden Eccles as they continue to grieve this tragic loss,” DeKalb Police Chief Greg Padrick said.
Online records do not reveal why Harris resigned from DeKalb police in 2020, and he has no disciplinary history with POST. From February 2024 to right before he returned to DeKalb police, POST records show Harris worked as a reserve officer with Lithonia police and voluntarily resigned.
Earlier this year, Russell Mathis, a former DeKalb police officer, entered a guilty plea for involuntary manslaughter in a fatal 2022 shooting. A reckless conduct charge was also merged as part of the plea deal and Mathis’ conviction was entered under a first offender rule that will erase the conviction from his record after his sentence is complete under certain conditions. He was sentenced to 10 years on probation, including two years of house arrest.
Mathis and another officer had responded to a call about a stolen vehicle parked in the driveway of a home, the AJC previously reported. The officers entered the residence after the door swung open as they were knocking, police said.
In a second-floor bedroom, Mathis encountered Marando Salmon sitting in the dark and fatally shot him in a “matter of seconds,” according to the DeKalb District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors previously said Mathis and all DeKalb police officers are trained to announce their presence while clearing every floor of a residence, but Mathis failed to do so on the night of the shooting.
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