So I’m sitting here, working on a SportingNews.com column and trying not to pass out due to the 4.5 hours or so of sleep I got last night after a late night at the Green Day show in Pittsburgh, and just as my eyes are in full droop mode I see an e-mail with the subject line “Scoop on Harrison.”
I considered leaving it for the morning, but I waited too long to talk myself into procrastinating.
Within seconds, I was wide awake.
According to the Philadelphia Daily News, the man who was shot seven times earlier this week and who previously claimed he’d been shot by former Colts receiver Marvin Harrison told authorities before he slipped into a coma that he believes Harrison hired the gunman.
Wow.
But the law enforcement source who provided the information to the Daily News also said that Harrison is not yet considered a suspect, pointing out that police “won’t know what made [the victim] say that until he wakes up.”
As we pointed out the other night (carefully and professionally, in order to avoid getting sued . . . or shot), Harrison clearly had a motive. The victim, Dwight Dixon, has filed a civil lawsuit against Harrison arising from the April 2008 shooting. ESPN The Magazine, which published in January an excellent item on this (insert unnecessary emphasis on the next two words) civil case not accompanied by criminal charges (yeah, we’re being smartasses indirectly), all but fingered Harrison as the shooter. And with Harrison unable to hide behind the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination (he can still invoke it, but the jury is allowed to infer liability if he does it), Dixon’s persistence could eventually trigger a prosecution, since Harrison will be forced to respond to the charges.
“I’m pretty comfortable I know who fired the gun,” Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said at the time. “But I’m not going to say because I don’t have the evidence.”
The bigger question for now is whether the person who fired the gun at Dixon this time around has any connection to the person who fired the gun 15 months ago.