Husband accused of killing a mother of 5 was accused of putting a gun to her head in 2017
The man who Miami-Dade police say killed his wife in their Liberty City home Saturday night was accused of putting a gun to her head in 2017.
Eddie Harris has a history of domestic violence arrests reflected in Miami-Dade court records. Each time Eddie Harris, now 49, was arrested, the records show, the alleged victim in the case was Shanica Harris, the woman he married in 2003 and had been in a relationship with since at least 1986. They have five children.
The couple tragically lost one of their children to gunfire in January 2016. Eddie Harris Jr., 18 at the time and a vocational night school student at Northwestern Senior High School, was shot and killed in broad daylight near Brownsville when someone pulled up in a car, got out and gunned him down.
In July 2004 and September 2010, Eddie Harris Sr. was arrested on a charge of misdemeanor battery. His July 2017 arrest was on charges of aggravated assault with a firearm and battery.
The first two cases ended with charges dismissed in less than three months. The 2017 case was closed in a month without charges being officially filed.
An arrest report says on July 24, 2017, Shanica got home from work and Eddie ordered her out of their home at 6004 NW 23rd Ave.
An argument began “which escalated to (Eddie) becoming irate and grabbing his .40 caliber Glock and pointing it to her head, then cocked it and told her he was going to kill her,” the report read. “(Shanica) stated she then began to beg (Eddie) not to kill her and he proceded to push her on her face, causing her to fall on the ground.”
The report says she ran out and called police.
Saturday, a 911 report of a shooting inside a home summoned officers to the Harris home Saturday night, Miami-Dade police said. The department’s Special Response Team got two children, a 6-year-old and a 9-year-old, out of the house when it discovered a woman fatally shot and a man with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The man was taken to Ryder Trauma Center. He’s expected to live.
Police have not publicly identified the Harrises are the couple involved. And law enforcement sources say the man was accusing the woman of adultery.
Property records and social media posts by friends and family identified the Harrises, who have one grandchild, four living adult children and one child who was killed at 19 while walking down a Brownsville street in January 2016.
Homicide detectives released a flyer Monday asking anyone with information on the shooting to come forward. Miami-Dade police spokesman Christopher Sowerby-Thomas said there are inconsistencies between some of the things Eddie Harris Sr. told police and what was told to law enforcement by other family members. The spokesman said detectives were trying to iron out the differences.
Anyone with information about this incident can contact Miami-Dade police homicide unit 305-471-2400, or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS (8477); the Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers website and select “Submit a Tip;” or the Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers Facebook page and select “Contact Us.”
This story was originally published September 30, 2019 at 2:33 PM.
