'What happened to Sean Harris?' Nyack protesters seek answers in 19-year-old's death
NYACK − About 40 people gathered around Hezekiah Easter Park Thursday night. They held signs. They chanted. They waved as cars honked driving by. And they pledged to return nearly every evening until they find the answer to the question that adorned many of their signs: "What happened to Sean Harris?"
Friends of the family vow to gather at the downtown pocket park at 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday until findings related to Harris' death on May 30 are released, including an ongoing preliminary assessment by the state Attorney General's Office.
The case of Sean Harris, 19, has brought up many questions in the wider Nyack community. They include cultural competency among social workers; Sean Harris and his mother, Judy Adams, are Black; social workers who were visiting them at their home and who called police were white.
The call to police launched a cascade of activity that family and friends believe led to the young man's death. A cause of death has yet to be determined.
"Two white women decided for this Black family that they would call the police," Nyack resident and family friend Nicole Hines said during the June 29 protest. "Because they were afraid, not because Mom was afraid."
Hines added, "You can only imagine how Sean was feeling standing in that doorway."
What happened the day Sean Harris died
Harris, the youngest of Judy Adams' three sons, was a student at SUNY Rockland Community College and hoped to become a civil engineer. An avid chess player and fencer, he had graduated in 2021 from the Greenburgh-Graham school district in Hastings-on-Hudson, which serves at-risk students and those with disabilities. He had worked at ShopRite in West Nyack but was taking a break.
Judy Adams had reached out for behavioral health support to aid her son.
More: State AG reviewing death of Sean Harris in Central Nyack while cops were on scene
More: Sean Harris' family seeks answers: Social workers called cops on teen; now he's dead
On May 30, the family said two social workers came to the house. Adams said they were from the Care Team, operated by Access: Supports for Living, which contracts with Rockland County to provide support for adolescents. A representative of the nonprofit could not comment on whether any person received services, citing privacy concerns.
Adams had what she described as a verbal exchange with her son. One of the social workers called police. Soon, Adams said, her neighborhood filled with police vehicles.
Clarkstown Police, in a June 6 statement, said Harris had a baseball bat, was "destroying items" and "threatened to kill his mother."
Adams said she never felt threatened. She also said that when she was finally able to go back into her home, she found nothing disturbed.
During most of encounter, Sean Harris stood in the family home's small entryway, visible through a glass storm door.
At some point, police shot out the glass with what police described as a less-lethal munition. A side door was also bashed, Adams said.
After an hours-long standoff, police went in and reported finding Sean Harris in the bathroom with pill bottles around him. He was pronounced dead at Montefiore Nyack Hospital.
Autopsy results are still pending.
Status of case
The New York State Attorney General's Office of Special Investigation is conducting a preliminary assessment. State Attorney General Letitia James is required by law to assess every reported incident in which a police, peace or corrections officer may have caused the death of a person, by an act or omission.
The preliminary assessment determines whether a formal investigation should be opened. If OSI declines such an investigation, a report must be issued explaining why OSI declined to present evidence to a grand jury. OSI can include recommendations for systemic or other reforms arising from an investigation.
A spokesperson for Rockland County confirmed on June 30 that the incident was under review by the county. She declined to provide further information.
Clarkstown Police on June 30 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What protesters say
Lynnette Eubanks Marshall, who has known Judy Adams since they were children growing up in Nyack, now lives a few blocks away from the family in Central Nyack. "It's been almost a month," Marshall said during the Thursday protest at Cedar and Main in the village, referring to the night Sean Harris died.
Marshall said she wanted to stand with the Adams-Harris family. "I'm here as a Black woman with a Black son," she said. "I regularly have these thoughts go through my head; that could have been my son."
Judy Adams said during the protest that she hadn't heard from Clarkstown, the County of Rockland or the state AG's office.
The glass of her front storm door has still not been replaced.
L'Tanya Watkins, a Spring Valley attorney and friend of the family, said during the protest that beyond any reports, the community must continue to ask questions. "What we consent and condone becomes our reality," she said.
Marshall reflected on the incident. "The bottom line is: whatever the autopsy shows, he would still be here if those social workers had listened to (Judy Adams) that she was not in danger."
Nancy Cutler covers People & Policy for lohud.com and the USA Today Network New York. Reach her at ncutler@lohud.com; follow her on Twitter at @nancyrockland.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Nyack protesters want answers after Sean Harris dies after 911 call
