AUTHORITIES in the southern U.S. state of North Carolina said Tuesday they were investigating the death of a deaf man who was fatally shot after a trooper tried to pull him over for speeding.

    Daniel Harris, 29, who used sign language to communicate, led trooper Jermaine Saunders on a 13-kilometer chase Thursday that started on an interstate highway and ended outside his home in Charlotte, local television station WSOC reported.

    The driver exited his vehicle in the neighborhood and an “encounter took place” that led to a shot being fired, North Carolina State Highway Patrol spokesman Sergeant Michael Baker said in a statement.

    The driver died at the scene, Baker said. No weapon was recovered from Harris, the State Bureau of Investigation told WSOC. Saunders has been placed on administrative leave while investigators review evidence, including dashboard and body camera videos.

    A neighbor called the shooting “totally unacceptable.”

    “He didn’t even hear the siren, he didn’t hear anything... You’re pulling someone over who is deaf, they are handicapped,” Mark Barringer told WSOC.

    The family of Harris said he was unarmed and suggested the sequence of events was a tragic misunderstanding — the type the state’s training manual warns troopers to avoid.

    Authorities haven’t said why Saunders fired, and a review of public records shows a few traffic charges against Harris from other states, including damaging his employer’s vehicle with his own car after he was fired last year, according to a Denver police report.

    Harris’ family is raising money for his funeral and will put any extra money toward educating police officers on interacting with hard of hearing people and calling for a computerized system to alert officers they are dealing with a deaf driver.(SD-Agencies)