When David Norman shot 19-year-old Jacob Harris on Jan. 11, it wasn't the first time the Phoenix police officer had killed someone — it was the third time in five years.  

Norman, who still works with the department's Special Assignment Unit, which apprehends high-risk fugitives, had already come off a violent year. In 2018, he shot two people — one died and the other survived — in the span of three months.

That year, the Phoenix Police Department had 44 police shootings — the highest number of cases for a department in the nation that year and the highest number in the agency's history.

Most police officers go through their entire law-enforcement careers without killing someone.

It's even rarer for officers to have multiple shootings.

“It is a troubling pattern to hear that more officers in Arizona are using force,” said Rashawn Ray, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Maryland.

An analysis by The Arizona Republic of 600 Arizona law-enforcement shootings from 2011 to 2018 showed:

• 79 police officers shot at people in two or more incidents.
• 52% of the officers with multiple shootings worked for the Phoenix Police Department.
• 21.5% of the officers with multiple shootings worked for the Mesa Police Department.
• 2018 had the most officers who shot twice in a single year—five Phoenix police officers and one Surprise police officer.
• Two Mesa officers were involved in five shootings: Michael Pezzelle and James Pollard.
• Two officers were involved in four shootings: Phoenix officer Christopher Palmer and Mesa officer Donald Rudd.

Officers with multiple shootings are an issue law enforcement officials are aware of, but they consider it almost inevitable in some high-risk assignments.

In Phoenix, the police chief and the mayor have not addressed the issue head-on. But they have begun to implement changes they hope will reduce the number of shootings overall. Mesa's police chief has also implemented a policy that he hopes will reduce police shootings.

Activists and some city leaders believe this issue needs to be highlighted in the debate about police shootings.

On Jan. 11, Jacob Harris was with Jeremiah Triplett, 20, Johnny Reed, 14, and Sariah Busani, 19.

Police said they had been following the group, which they suspected had committed armed robberies.

When officers stopped their vehicle near 91st Avenue and Camelback Road, according to police and court records, Harris exited and turned toward Norman and Officer Kristopher Bertz while holding a gun. The two officers shot and killed him.

MORE: These Arizona officers have shot at 4 or more people in the past 8 years

Court records indicate Harris had a loaded 9mm handgun. Video footage captured on a police helicopter shows Norman and Bertz fired three seconds after Harris exited the car. The video does not show Harris turning toward the officers.

The video was accidentally released by Phoenix police to KPNX, the local NBC affiliate, in June. Since then, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office successfully requested the court seal the video and has refused to release it to the public. 

Heather Kirka, a prosecutor who presented the case to a grand jury, told the jurors in January that Harris got out of the car and fired at officers, who then returned fire and killed him.

But, Phoenix police Det. Jacob Rasmussen later told the jurors that "we don't believe he (Harris) fired a shot." Rasmussen did say that Harris turned toward the officers.

A judge sent the case back to a grand jury because of the discrepancies between what the video shows and how the prosecutor presented the case. In July, Rasmussen again told the grand jurors that Norman and Bertz saw Harris turn toward the officers. The grand jury again indicted the three.

As of now, Triplett, Reed and Busani are charged with first-degree murder in connection with Jacob Harris' death, even though the officers killed him. In Arizona, prosecutors can charge a person with murder if someone dies while the other person was in the midst of committing a felony.  

The issue of repeat officer shootings may play a role in the case. Judge Suzanne Cohen has agreed to allow the defense attorneys to look at police records of previous police shootings by Norman and Bertz as part of the case. 

Harris' father, Roland Harris, said the Maricopa County Attorney's Office asked him to testify against his son's friends. The attorneys told him it would help prosecute the people responsible for his son's death, he said. 

"'You call me when you're charging David Norman with my son's murder,'" Roland Harris said he responded. "'I'll be more than glad to take part in that. But other than this, I'm not taking part in you guys prosecuting and putting away three innocent kids for a murder they didn't commit.'"

The Maricopa County Attorney's Office has not yet reviewed the case to determine if the shooting was justified.

The younger Harris, who was half black and half Mexican, had a 1-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter. His father had helped him get an apartment, and he was working as a manager at Whataburger.

He was about to begin the process of trying to get full custody of his children, the father said. Those kids, Roland Harris said, will grow up without a father.

"That's the thing that these officers don't realize," he said.

In June, during a community forum at the Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church with Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams, Harris told the crowd his son was the third person Norman had shot at.

Harris asked why Norman was still employed with the Police Department considering how many people he'd shot. Bertz also was involved in a previous shooting. 

Police departments don't always identify the officer after a shooting, making it challenging for the public to know if they had any previous shootings.

A database compiled by The Arizona Republic shows Jacob Harris actually was the fourth person Norman had shot since 2011, further demonstrating how hard it is for the public to track officers with multiple shootings.

Phoenix City Councilman Carlos Garcia is the co-chair of Mayor Kate Gallego's ad hoc committee on recommending changes for the Phoenix Police Department. He said one of his biggest concerns is not knowing an officer's use-of-force history.

“We should not be afraid of transparency," Garcia said. "It allows the innocent to be proven innocent and identify where there are problems that we can find a solution to."

He said an early intervention system — a computer program that tracks trends — could help reduce the number of shootings an officer is involved in.

Garcia, who is also executive director of the immigrant-rights group Puente Arizona, said the software could help the Police Department determine how often an officer has shot and under what circumstances.

The Phoenix City Council has debated implementing a citizens review board, which could review use-of-force cases.

Garcia has supported a citizens review board because he said this would identify officers involved in shootings or accused of excessive force. 

Still, he said he understands why departments may not want to identify officers after a shooting, for safety reasons. But, he said, this creates a double standard in the criminal justice system.

"I think they do fear for their officers' safety. But like anything else, if the incidents were righteous and nothing was wrong, then they should be transparent," he said. "The community doesn’t get the luxury of having their names private when they’re accused of a crime."

Some of the officers who have the most shootings — including Norman and Bertz — are part of a task force specifically assigned to apprehend people accused of violent crimes, known as the Special Assignment Unit.

This assignment can raise the chances of an officer being involved in a shooting.

"That unit is a death squad for the Phoenix Police Department," Roland Harris said.

Not all police departments have an in-house unit like this. Mesa, for example, is part of a multi-agency task force whose job duties are similar to Phoenix's Special Assignment Unit. But police departments often do have special units that focus on dangerous criminal activity, such as those that focus on gangs. 

The Republic's database doesn't identify which units an officer worked in.

Phoenix Lt. Ben Leuschner, president of the Phoenix Police Sergeants and Lieutenants Association, said it's not uncommon for officers, both patrol and those in a unit, to respond to calls where someone is armed with a gun.

Responding to violent scenes and shootings are part of officers' jobs, Leuschner said. And, by extension, police shootings are too, he said. 

"If people are surprised sometimes that it ends in police shootings, I don’t know what to say to that," he said. "I wish there was no police shootings, but that’s the nature of this job.”

However, he said departments should track how many times an officer is involved in a shooting — to determine the perils that police departments put their officers in. 

Phoenix and Mesa police track police shootings, but not specifically how many times officers have been involved in a shooting.

“Officers who are involved in more shootings, I wouldn’t go immediately to say there’s a problem with the officer. But that’s a fair a question to ask," he said. “It’s not that officers are looking for people to shoot. I don’t like hearing that story. Officers are very cautious because they want to go home to their families.”

The Department of Justice under the Obama administration took notice of officers who had multiple shootings.

The DOJ investigated the Miami (Florida) Police Department and among its findings found that "seven officers participated in over a third of the 33 officer-involved shootings" between 2008 to 2011.

Four of those officers were part of specialized units, similar to Phoenix's Special Assignment Unit. This was cause for concern for both the community and the officers' well being, the DOJ said in a July 9, 2013, letter to the Miami police chief.

"Had the shooting investigations been completed in a timely fashion, corrective action could have been undertaken and may have prevented the harm that can result from officers' repeated shootings, such as injury or death to the officer and/or the subject, trauma to the officer and others, and costly legal settlements, among other types of harm," the letter stated.

According to The Republic's analysis, Mesa police officers who are part of a regional task force with the U.S. Marshal's Office and other East Valley agencies led the list of officers with multiple shootings.

Similar to Phoenix police's Special Assignment Unit, this task force goes after fugitives with felony warrants.

Mesa police have the most officers on this task force, and they can be sent to any part of Maricopa County to find a suspect, said Cmdr. Ed Wessing, a spokesman for the department.

He said an officer who is part of this task force is more likely to be involved in a shooting than a patrol officer because the population they're dealing with is more likely to become violent.

Former Mesa police officers Michael Pezzelle and James Edward Pollard were part of that task force. They were involved in five shootings each between 2011 and 2018.

Their most recent shooting was on April 20, 2017. Both shot and killed Sariah M. Lane, 17, who was unarmed and sitting in the back seat of a vehicle.

They also killed their intended target, Brandon Pequeño, 25, who was wanted by police in connection with kidnapping, domestic violence, aggravated assault and felony warrants. Police had blocked the vehicle Pequeño was driving, and he began to ram the officers' patrol vehicles.

Both officers retired in 2018.

Earlier this year, Lane's mother filed a lawsuit against the officers and Mesa. A spokesman for Mesa police said Pezzelle and Pollard couldn't comment because of the lawsuit.

Wessing said officers' presence on the list of repeat shooters doesn't indicate a systematic problem. He said that often in high-risk situations they're left with no choice but to react to the actions of the person they're attempting to apprehend. 

The task force is focused on apprehending "the worst of the worst," he said. He defended the officers on this task force, saying they are the most well trained because they go after individuals who are often wanted for murder or other dangerous crimes.

Many are known to be armed and highly violent, he said. Their arrests require more expertise and preparation than an average officer would be able to provide, he said. Without the task force officers, he said, patrol officers and the general public would be put in more danger.

"We would like to go through the year and not have one shooting. We would like people to comply," Wessing said.

The person shot also plays a role in how an encounter turns out, he said. "You're only focused on, 'Hey, officers get involved in these and why.' And this is concerning." 

Phoenix Officer Christopher Palmer, with the Special Assignment Unit, was involved in two fatal shootings and two nonfatal shootings between Sept. 28, 2012, and Nov. 29, 2018.

In his first fatal shooting, on Aug. 23, 2014, police responded to the house of a person who had fled a hit-and-run collision.

The crash victim reported that the driver, Mauricio Herrera-Garcia, was shooting from his car as he drove away. When officers arrived at the house, they saw Herrera-Garcia's car drive by and chased him to a convenience store.

Three officers approached Herrera-Garcia and he pulled a gun. Officers Palmer, Justin Walker and Brian Walsh shot and killed Herrera-Garcia.

Then, on Nov. 29, 2018, Palmer killed Miguel Duran Delgado.

The Phoenix Police Department's Special Assignment Unit was sent to arrest a carjacking suspect. Delgado had pointed an AR-15 rifle at the driver of a semitruck and drove the truck a short way before stopping the truck in front of a house, police reported.

Delgado walked around the truck and front of the house in a low position. He ignored officers' orders to drop his weapon, according to police reports. Palmer fired a single round, killing the man. 

The Republic had requested interviews with police officers who had multiple shootings. Sgt. Vincent Lewis, a spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department, said that, per department policy, officers "are not authorized for media contact."

But Lewis said, "Involved officers are allowed time away from enforcement immediately following, and we check in with them prior to their return to service to see if they need more time off."

In June, during an interview with The Republic, Phoenix Chief Williams mentioned the fugitive-apprehension unit or the special-assignment unit as jobs in which officers are more likely to be involved in a shooting. 

"We're always concerned about officer-involved shootings," she said. "One police shooting is one police shooting too many."

Leuschner, president of the Phoenix Police Sergeants and Lieutenants Association, said he wants to know why the department had such a high number of shootings last year.

But, he said, some have put police officers in a negative light even though the officers feel like they are protecting the community.

"These are good people. These aren’t people who are looking to shoot people," he said. "They’re hard workers, and they feel like they’re being punished for trying to help people.” 

Police shootings statewide have declined in 2019, with at least 42 reported through Oct. 18. There were 117 police shootings in Arizona in 2018.

Viri Hernandez, executive director of the Maryvale-based advocacy group Poder in Action, said the community and police departments should be concerned with officers who have multiple shootings. She was particularly concerned with officers who were involved in multiple shootings in less than a year. 

"The departments need to see what is happening that allows these officers to shoot in such a short period of time," she said. "These are huge red flags.”

She believes that Phoenix police's new policy requiring officers to document every time they point their guns at someone will help predict whether an officer is using his or her firearm an unusual amount.

Recently, Phoenix police supplied on-body cameras to 2,000 of its 3,000 police officers. Hernandez said body cameras won't necessarily stop police shootings, but they add another layer of transparency. 

After a police shooting, both Mesa and Phoenix police departments put their officers on leave for about two weeks. During that time, they are provided with mental health experts who determine whether the officer is ready to return to enforcement operations.

Mesa requires officers to take an additional 30 days if they're involved in a second shooting, a recent change Mesa Police Chief Ramon Batista implemented.

Just one shooting can be detrimental to an officer's mental well-being, according to John Violanti, a University of Buffalo professor and expert on police stress.

"It’s dangerous for an officer to go through many shootings," he said. "These people should be especially cared for — even more so than those who have had a single shooting."

A 2013 study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found that 15% of all male officers and 18% of female officers will experience some level of PTSD during their careers.

It's unknown how many officers are affected by PTSD after being involved in a shooting.

In 2018, Arizona enacted a comprehensive PTSD prevention law known as the Craig Tiger Act.

The act, named after a Phoenix officer who killed himself after struggling with PTSD from a police shooting, ensures officers and firefighters receive additional treatment after being involved in a traumatic on-the-job incident.

Arizona cities must track and report the use of these resources to the state in addition to documenting the total number who are ruled unfit for duty and which employees later filed a workers' compensation claim.

Violanti said officers can be haunted by a shooting for months or even years.

Repeat trauma can accumulate into complex PTSD, which Violanti explained magnifies existing PTSD symptoms.

"When you have a traumatic event, no matter what it is, the next one is more likely to come and you’re more at risk of getting PTSD," he said. "Each event adds to each other like a snowball effect and, sometimes, you get to the point where you can no longer deal with people or your job."

Police departments need to provide long-term care for officers, especially if they have been involved in more than one shooting, he said. He added that not all officers will develop PTSD, even if they are involved in multiple shootings. 

Violanti said officers who have been involved in a shooting are actually less likely to shoot again. The majority of Arizona officers involved in a shooting were not involved in another, according to Republic data. 

"They try to avoid things like that as much as they can," he said. "If anything, they don’t want to get involved in these kinds of situations out of concern of a lack of proper performance."

Roland Harris has filed a $5 million claim against the Phoenix Police Department for his son's shooting.

He also wants prosecutors to criminally charge the officers for Jacob's death, but he recognizes that likely won't happen.

In the 400 police shooting cases the Maricopa County Attorney's Office has reviewed from 2011 to 2018, one officer was charged with murder — and later acquitted by a jury.

"No one's charged any of them and, honestly, I know they're never going to charge any of these police officers with murder," Harris said.

The money doesn't matter, Harris added. He just wants to make the city understand they can't afford to keep officers like Norman and Bertz on the force. 

"People say like, 'Oh well, at least the families will get millions of dollars.' My response to that is, 'You tell me where I can sign up to pay millions of dollars to get my son back and I will pay for that.'"

Uriel Garcia and Bree Burkitt cover public-safety issues in Arizona. Reach Uriel at uriel.garcia@azcentral.com and Bree at bburkitt@republicmedia.com. Follow them on Twitter @ujohnnyg and @breeburkitt.