Sean Harris' family seeks answers: Social workers called cops on teen; now he's dead

CENTRAL NYACK − Sean Harris had goals and the ability to achieve them, his family members said as they gathered recently in the living room of the West Broadway home where Harris had lived with his mom, Judy Adams.

Harris, 19, had been struggling recently with social issues. He was staying home a lot; playing video games. He'd taken a break from his cashier job at ShopRite in West Nyack. But he had just completed another semester at SUNY Rockland Community College, on a path to become a civil engineer.

Sean Harris: State AG reviewing death of Central Nyack teen while cops were on scene

In an effort to help her youngest son, Judy Adams had reached out for behavioral health support.

“We were getting him back on track,” said Von Charpentier, Judy Adams' cousin, who lives down the block in this close-knit, modest community on the cusp of Clarkstown.

On May 30, a couple of social workers came over. The family identified them as 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.

Judy Adams had what she described as verbal exchange with her son, who wanted to order himself a new cellphone; Harris was speaking to her, not the social workers.

Then the social workers went outside. Judy Adams realized, after the fact, they had called the police.

By that evening, Sean Harris was dead.

'I can't believe this happened'

Clarkstown Police released a statement about the incident June 6, after a USA Today Network New York reporter asked for comment. Police categorized the encounter as a "domestic incident."

The police statement said that Harris had a baseball bat, was "destroying items" and "threatened to kill his mother."

Judy Adams said neither happened. She showed guests her home on June 9. "It's the same as it was that day," she said, motioning around a small and tidy living room.

The state Attorney General's Office continues a review of the incident, the procedure any time there's a death with police on the scene.

L'Tanya Watkins, a Spring Valley attorney and friend of the family, said it was clear to her that a lack of cultural sensitivity fed a tragic outcome. "They didn't seek consult with the mother," Watkins said. They called police.

Harris and Judy Adams are Black; the social workers are white.

Wilbur Aldridge, the NAACP Mid-Hudson Valley's regional director, said the NAACP was glad the attorney general was looking at the case. "We certainly would be more prone to get an unbiased report of what actually transpired," he said.

Kevin Adams, 32, Judy Adams' middle son, said he still can't wrap his mind around how the incident spiraled. "I can't believe this happened to us," he said. "I wouldn't want this to happen to anyone else."

Chess, fencing, family

Sean Harris was the baby of the Adams family. He joined them when he was 10 days old through foster care and adoption.

Young Sean always wanted to be in the middle of the action with his big brothers, said Kevin Adams, who lives in Orange County. Another brother, Ron Adams, 40, lives in Boston.

"He looked up to us," Kevin Adams said. He always wanted to "be in the mix."

Harris had graduated in 2021 from Martin Luther King Jr. High School in the Greenburgh-Graham school district in Hastings-on-Hudson, which serves at-risk students and those with disabilities.

Kevin Adams questioned the focus on Harris' behavioral health issues and queries about any mental health diagnoses. “Everybody’s on a spectrum of behavior, mental health, physical health," he said.

Harris was a talented student and avid chess player, Greenburgh-Graham officials have said. He excelled in math. He was also interested in civics, Von Charpentier said, and liked to debate about politics and government.

During the pandemic school shutdown, Harris would go down the block to do his schooling with Kayla Charpentier, his cousin and Von Charpentier's daughter. One would be upstairs participating in remote classes and the other downstairs. Kayla, 24, just graduated from the pharmacy Ph.D. program at St. John's University.

After high school, Harris started online classes at RCC. During the spring, he was taking one in-person class and some remote classes.

Harris excelled at activities that involved strategy, like chess and math. He had been fencing competitively since he was 10.

Before his June 7 funeral at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Nyack, his fencing coach spoke about how hard Harris worked to improve and how integral he was to the team.

"He loved to learn. He helped with the smaller kids, he was always patient," said Mika'il Sankofa, a former Olympian fencer and owner of Thrust Academy in Nyack.

When he was a kid, Harris sometimes would have to be mindful of his temper, Kevin Adams said. But he had matured. “He has never done anything wrong," said Adams. "Never got a speeding ticket. Never acted out in public.”

On May 30, police tried to get Harris to come outside, but he stayed in the home. Judy Adams can only speculate about why.

“That day he was in his own domain,” Judy Adams said. "Home is supposed to be a safe haven for him.”

What happened that day

On several points, the family's version of what took place May 30 differs from what police included in their statement.

Around 6 p.m., two social workers came to visit. Judy Adams said it was only the second visit from the agency and the first by these particular social workers. Clarkstown police, in their June 6 statement, said they were told by one of the social workers that "she makes frequent visits to the home to check up on Mr. Sean Harris."

Police reported that Harris was in the basement when the social workers came, where he "refused to converse" with them. Judy Adams said the social workers were only downstairs for a minute.

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According to police, Harris then came upstairs to the kitchen area and "started destroying items with a baseball bat, and threatened to kill his mother."

Judy Adams said Harris came upstairs. He told his mom he wanted to use her phone to order his own phone. They had an exchange about who would pay for his purchase.

“He was talking directly to me. His anger was directed at me,” Judy Adams said.

She confirmed that Harris was holding a bat. She said again nothing in the house was disturbed.

Judy Adams said she never felt threatened by the exchange, and didn’t think much of it.

She realized only later that the “the two ladies got afraid.”

When police came to the door, they asked Judy Adams to come outside. She did.

The police didn't go inside. Soon police cruisers filled the block. There were tactical units and police dogs and officers carrying shields.

"The whole street was filled with cops," Judy Adams said. “I was not allowed back in the house."

A standoff begins

It went on for hours.

Von Charpentier rushed up the street when Judy Adams called her. Early on, Von Charpentier said, police allowed her to talk to Harris using a cruiser’s PA system. At some point, through the living room window, she saw Harris standing in the vestibule. But police pushed Von Charpentier and others back across the street.

Von Charpentier recalled an officer saying they were trying "to keep everyone safe."

A couple more hours dragged on. Von Charpentier got her daughter, Kayla, on the phone. There was talk of putting Kayla on a loudspeaker to talk with her cousin, to see if she could get him to walk out.

"I automatically knew he was scared and they just didn't know Sean," Kayla Charpentier said. She didn't get to talk to her cousin and doesn't know if it would have made a difference.

She said she knows "he was not a threat."

Von Charpentier said she was concerned, but, "I'm thinking, everyone is safe."

Then, Von Charpentier said, "things changed on a dime."

'Last time I seen Sean alive'

Police shot out the glass of the storm door at the front of the house, Judy Adams said. In their report, Clarkstown police said Harris "was struck by a less lethal impact munition on the lower left abdomen and retreated into his home."

Judy Adams said after the glass was shot out, Harris ran back into the home. "That was the last time I seen Sean alive," she said.

A young officer started asking Judy Adams about the layout of the house. Police asked her if Harris had access to weapons.

In their June 6 statement, police said a negotiator had engaged with Harris and that the young man said he had a Glock 17. Judy Adams, Von Charpentier, and Kayla Charpentier said they'd never heard him use that kind of term.

Clarkstown police said a crisis negotiation team was brought in. Von Charpentier said a woman in plainclothes had showed up and identified herself as a negotiator with the Clarkstown police.

But Von Charpentier said she didn't see her talk with Harris at all.

Judy Adams said around 9:15 or so, police went in. It was quiet. She now knows they found Harris in the bathroom.

She said police told her they were taking Harris to nearby Montefiore Nyack Hospital; they didn't offer her a ride. She set off walking. By the time she passed the McDonald’s on Route 59, about 0.3 miles from her home, she saw an ambulance pass, no lights, no siren.

She said she knew then that her youngest son was gone. When she got to Montefiore Nyack, about a mile away, “they tell us to go to the quiet room,” Judy Adams recalled. “I know what that means.”

Judy Adams said police told her Harris had taken medications. "They said he has an OD."

In their statement, Clarkstown police said they had found about two dozen opened pill bottles containing hundreds of pills next to Harris. Police said they started CPR.

Judy Adams looked in the bathroom and the medicine cabinet when she returned home. “It was not messy,” she said, “not one pill bottle” was on the ground. Adams declined to enumerate her prescriptions nor Harris' but said neither took any sort of pain medication.

Autopsy reports are still pending.

Looking for answers in the aftermath

Judy Adams said the police have called her about paying to replace the glass in the front storm door, and to fix the side door that was bashed in.

Kevin Adams said police called him just before Harris' June 7 funeral. He said he kept it brief and found the conversation a fishing expedition, “seeing what I would react to.”

Kevin Adams said the incident shows a misuse of power at every turn: social workers who didn't communicate with his mother; police who enlisted overwhelming numbers to confront a teen. "We're not in Iraq," he said. "We're in Rockland County."

Von Charpentier said she still cannot figure out how a mother and son's exchange led to this disaster. "We go from that to this big production.

"Read the room, right?" Von Charpentier said. "If a mother's not panicking ... "

Watkins concurred. "She wasn't afraid," she said of Judy Adams. "She didn't flinch."

Watkins said the system supposedly set up to protect Harris terrorized him. "Mental health is not an excuse for violence and not an excuse to control people."

Help is available

The New York State Office of Mental Health offers a mental health program directory at omh.ny.gov. Resources include:

• Immediate medical assistance: Dial 911.

• Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988 or https://988lifeline.org/

• New York State Domestic Violence Hotline: Dial 1-800-942-6906

• Crisis Text Line: Text "Got5" to 741-741

• Frontline worker: Text “FRONTLINENY” to 741-741 for specialized support

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Central Nyack NY teen died with police on scene, family has questions