Evidence Technician Elijah Harris was a 52-year-old African American member of the Chicago Police Department with over 19 years’ service. On the night of July 31, 1989, while on duty in the Gresham District, a citizen reported seeing a teenager with a gun. Harris located 16-year-old Andrew Mookie Jordan and began to frisk him; during the frisk Jordan produced a .22 caliber handgun and shot Harris in the abdomen.

Harris called for assistance and gave a description of the assailant before being taken to Christ Hospital. He succumbed to his injuries on November 16, 1989. Andrew Jordan was arrested and initially charged with aggravated battery and attempted murder; after Harris’s death the charges were upgraded to first-degree murder and Jordan was held in Cook County Jail. Harris’s funeral was at Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and he was buried at Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.

If anyone knew Elijah Harris or has information about the events of July 31, 1989, please share what you know.