Jury convicts man who shot at Chattanooga Police officers

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — A man accused of shooting at Chattanooga police officers was convicted of attempted voluntary manslaughter.

It took the jury a couple of hours to reach a verdict in Joel Harris’ case.

He was initially charged with attempted first degree murder, but the jury went with a lesser charge.

Harris was also convicted of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and resisting arrest.

This stems from an incident in June of 2018 where body cam video showed Harris in a shootout with police officers.

While defense attorneys argued police escalated the situation, prosecutors say that’s not the case.

“It wasn’t police. It was not them. He is the one that kept walking. He is the one that started running. He is the one that fired the first shot,” prosecutor Lee Ortwein said.

Harris will be sentenced in October.