Playground where body was found Monday reopens

WSLS News Staff and Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: May 20, 2008

Updated 8:27 a.m. Tuesday, May 20th

By Carrie J. Sidener
Lynchburg News & Advance

A Lynchburg recreation center will reopen this morning after a man was found shot dead in its playground Monday morning — a shooting that police are not yet calling a murder.

The College Hill Recreation Center at 811 Jackson St. closed Monday while Lynchburg Police investigators canvassed the neighborhood and searched the playground for clues to why Harold Emmanuele Harris, 22, of Lynchburg, was shot to death.

Updated 6:25 p.m.

By Aimee Norton

The playground of a community center became a crime scene Monday in Lynchburg. Police put white sheets along fences and from playground equipment to shield onlookers from the body of 22-year-old Harold Harris. Police say a city worker noticed a body just before 8 a.m.  His family members were distraught after hearing the news, and so were neighbors.

Elizabeth Murrell has lived next to the playground for almost seven years.  She says her son was shot to death several years ago when someone tried to rob him.  This death made her think about Harris’ family.

“You kind of feel in your heart what the other person is feeling right now.  You know exactly what they feel, and how they feel,” said Murrell.

Monday, there were feelings of shock and grief as a life came to an end in a very unlikely place.

We did some checking into Harold Harris with our media partner the Lynchburg News and Advance. According to court records, Harris was released from prison in July of last year.  He served a little less than two years on a two and half year sentence.  He was charged with trying to get a firearm as a convicted felon and violating the terms of probation.  He was released for good behavior.

The College Hill Community Center was closed when the crime happened.  The center will reopen on Tuesday.  Staff will be available for any kids who need to talk about what happened.

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Updated 5:00 p.m.

By Carrie J. Sidener
Lynchburg News & Advance

A man was found shot to death in the playground of a Lynchburg community center Monday morning.

The Lynchburg Police Department is investigating the death of Harold Emmanuele Harris, 22, of Lynchburg. His body was spotted behind the College Hill Recreation Center by a Lynchburg public works employee collecting the morning’s garbage, said Capt. Todd Swisher.

“We are not calling this a homicide at this point,” Swisher said Monday afternoon. “It is a death investigation. At this point it is premature to call it (a homicide). The information we are developing will give us more of an idea of what happened.”

If deemed a homicide, it will be the third in Lynchburg this year.

A Lynchburg man was fatally shot in the parking lot of the Super 8 motel on Candlers Mountain Road on April 20, and another city man was stabbed to death on Jan. 1 on Pierce Street after an argument at a New Years Eve party. Police have made arrests in both incidents.

On Monday, the public works employee called 911 at 7:46 a.m. to report the body of a man lying on the ground behind the recreation center at 811 Jackson St. According to a police department news release, Harris appeared to have died from a gunshot wound.

Investigators put up sheets and screens on the fences around the playground to block the body from view, but some of the neighbors already had seen Harris’ body.

One woman on the scene said she knew it was “Fidget” (Harris’ nickname) because she could see the glasses and his face through the makeshift screen. She was looking for someone to tell her if her suspicion was true.

The cries of Harris’ mother, Maria Harris, echoed through the neighborhood when police told her they believed it was her son laying dead, and then again when she identified the body.

As investigators canvassed the neighborhood looking for someone who saw or heard something, a man collapsed in the street, sobbing, while a woman stood behind him and wrapped her arms around him in comfort.

The College Hill Recreation Center will reopen Tuesday, said Joanne Martin, communications director for the city.

“This is very unfortunate,” Martin said. “It did not happen during center hours.”

Martin said the center is a place for children to come and play on the playground or gather for games of pool and foosball. Its activities also include programs for senior adults as well as the neighborhood program, which provides structured play activities from 2:30-8 p.m. daily for youth.

Harris had been released from prison in July for a string of crimes dating back to a January 2003 shooting when he was 17, according to records in Lynchburg Circuit Court.

According to an affidavit filed in that case by a police investigator, Harris ordered three men parked at the 800 block of Hollins Street to get out of their car. When they refused, he went around to the front of the car and started shooting. The passengers weren’t hurt, but a bullet grazed the driver’s door and the left windshield post.

Harris was sentenced to five years in prison in September 2003 for shooting at an occupied vehicle. The judge suspended three years for an active term of two years, but according to court records, Harris was free by March 2005.

He was convicted in January 2006 for attempted possession of a firearm by a violent felon. He was sentenced to a year in prison for that crime and another year and a half for breaking the terms of his probation on the original shooting conviction.

Harris was released early last summer for good behavior. He was scheduled to be in court again on Thursday for driving while his license was suspended for failure to pay money he owed from his earlier run-ins with the court.

Police are asking that anyone who witnessed the shooting or may have information regarding Harris’ death to call Investigator Glenn Anderson with the Lynchburg Police Department at (434) 455-6179 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 798-5900.

Staff writer Chris Dumond contributed.

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Original story 9:04 a.m., updated 10:30 a.m.

Lynchburg police have identified a shooting victim found in a playground behind the College Hill Recreation Center.

The man is Harold Emmanuele Harris, of Lynchburg.

Police are investigating the discovery in a playground behind the College Hill Recreation Center.

Multiple investigators, police officers and Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Doucette were on the scene this morning.

Traffic was blocked off around the center, located at 811 Jackson St..