BALTIMORE, Md. — Dawnta Harris is accused of hitting and killing Baltimore County Officer Amy Caprio in a stolen Jeep. Officer Caprio was responding to reports of burglaries in a Perry Hall neighborhood in May 2018. Harris has been on trial for six days.
WATCH A CLIP OF THE INTERROGATION BELOW:
Monday, the State's Attorney's Office released video of the lead detective's interrogation with Harris. In the recorded interrogation, Harris started off denying he was ever in a Jeep and ended admitting he drove the Jeep and had a confrontation with a female officer.
"I don't have a clue why I'm down here," said Harris. He expressed how he was picked up by police after getting a ride to his girlfriend's house. He stressed he never saw a jeep.
The lead detective said, "You clearly parked a black Jeep right around the corner from where you got stopped." He added, "It's pretty simple when we have multiple people giving independent stories that are all the same." The lead detective said there were several eyewitnesses who saw Harris with the Jeep and expressed that he was confident Harris' DNA and fingerprints would be inside.
It was then that Harris changed his story. Now stating he saw the Jeep when he left his girlfriend's house, got in it while it was already running, drove it briefly and then jumped out.
Shortly after, a Jeep key fell from the lead detective's chair. At the beginning of the interrogation video you see Harris messing with the chair, hiding something.
The lead detective went over a map with Harris to understand exactly where he was and went through his phone and discussed phone calls. He expressed that they have lots of evidence against Harris, including body camera footage from Officer Caprio. The body camera footage shows Officer Caprio yelling at the Jeep with her gun pulled and then getting hit.
Harris then admitted to driving the Jeep and being with three other people who were taking things from random homes in Perry Hall. He said he was in the Jeep when he saw the officer, got scared and just wanted to get home.
"She started pointing a gun towards the car and that’s when I put my head down and closed my eyes," said Harris. He added, "I didn't even know I hit her."
The released footage of interrogation was nearly three hours long, but when you look at the time stamps, Harris got into the interrogation room around 3:30 p.m. on May 22, 2018 and the video stopped around 1 a.m. on May 23, 2018, marking a nearly 10-hour stretch of time. Harris changed his story a few times, but ultimately admitted to driving the Jeep. However, he did not admit participating in the robberies or hitting Officer Caprio.
READ MORE: Prosecution rests case against Harris in Officer Caprio murder trial
Closing arguments for Harris' murder trial will begin on Tuesday morning. The jury should start to deliberate by the afternoon. Stay with WMAR-2 News for updates on this case.
