Family fights charges in quarrel with police

The arrest of a woman and her fiance spur two demonstrations and a department investigation.

By CARRIE JOHNSON and LEANORA MINAI
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 19, 2003

ST. PETERSBURG -- The dispute started, police said, when a man on a bicycle ignored a stop sign and hurled a glass bottle toward two pedestrians.

But when a 13-year-old boy walked between officers and the bicyclist, what began as a routine questioning Monday turned ugly, ending in the arrest of the boy's mother, Tammie Harrison, 41, and her fiance, Kenneth Nichols, 39.

Now, protests have been staged outside the Police Department and at City Hall and an Internal Affairs investigation has been launched.

Police said the protests are unwarranted. They say the youth was interfering with officers as they tried to do their jobs.

"It doesn't raise any concern with me," Police Chief Chuck Harmon said. "I wish the people with concerns would have handled it differently."

But Nichols sees it differently. He says he watched Officer Daniel Barber shove 13-year-old Elijah Harrison as the youth walked past them on his way home on 14th Avenue S.

"(Officer Barber) told me it was none of my business," Nichols said in an interview at his home Friday. "I told him it was my business what he did to my son."

Harrison said she tried to intervene. Nichols, who was with her, said that as Harrison spoke with police, he sensed trouble and ran to the house. When he stopped, he said, he was shoved to the ground and handcuffed.

Harrison said she was shoved four times during the argument with police. She told her son to run home.

Harrison said police threw her to the ground and arrested her. She was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest without violence.

Nichols was also charged with resisting arrest without violence.

By the next day, word of the couple's arrests spread through the black socialist Uhuru movement, which organized a demonstration Wednesday outside the Police Department.

More than 30 people wearing signs reading "Officer Barber Must Go" were at Thursday's City Council meeting. They demanded that Barber be fired and reparations paid to Harrison and Nichols.

"We won't stand for this," Nyabinga Dzimbahwe, 23, told council members.

Internal Affairs is reviewing the incident.

Police spokesman Bill Doniel said the two officers, Barber and Jerry Tuggle, were trying to interview the bicyclist Monday when a crowd of about 20 or 30 gathered. He said people in the crowd shouted to the bicyclist, telling him not to give police his name.

The bicyclist was identified as Anthony Haygood.

Then, police said, two boys, on separate occasions, walked between the officers and the bicyclist. Police think the second boy was Elijah.

"Officer Barber puts out his hand and says to the second juvenile, 'Walk around,"' Doniel said. "The juvenile walks into his hand and began yelling, 'You can't touch me! You can't put your hands on me!"'

Doniel said the crowd grew agitated, and the bicyclist took off.

Doniel said the crowd should not have interfered while officers were working. He questioned the Uhuru's motives.

"Here is an opportunity to get media exposure," he said. "The facts of the case are totally different than what was presented at City Council."

Harmon said residents in the predominantly African-American neighborhoods have told him they are pleased with relations between police and the community.

"This is a single situation, and I don't want people to get the perception that this is a continual occurence," Harmon said.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright