Six Durations of a Split Second: The Killing of Harith Augustus
Photo Credit: Jason Schumer
On July 14, 2018, 37-year-old Harith Augustus, a local barber, was shot to death by police patrolling 71st Street in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood.
By means of new forensic techniques and on-the-ground reporting, a year-long investigation by FA and II contests the police narrative that the shooting was justified. It investigates the incident from multiple perspectives and demonstrates that the fatal encounter was caused by aggressive policing rather than any criminal conduct by Augustus.
The result is six video-investigations, each of which reconstructs the event across a distinct time scale—from milliseconds to years—and exposes different dimensions of police violence. Taken together, these counter-investigations of the killing of Harith Augustus raise fundamental questions about policing and race in the United States.
An Investigation by the Invisible Institute and Forensic Architecture, presented at the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial
View the investigation online
Additional Reporting
Two years after our reporting with Forensic Architecture, new unedited body camera footage released in the context of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit made it possible to examine the sequence of police actions immediately after Officer Dillan Halley killed Harith Augustus. Viewed together with previously released footage, it deepens our understanding of how an official narrative of a police killing takes shape. Explore the footage and read Jamie Kalven’s reporting in The Intercept.
Our reporting’s impact continues with the short film Incident (2023), directed by Bill Morrison and co-produced by Jamie Kalven. Using body-worn camera footage, surveillance, CCTV, and dashboard video, the film reconstructs the killing of Harith Augustus as a synchronized split-screen montage, examining both the encounter and its aftermath.
Recent reporting documents the legal trajectory of the case, including a 2026 Illinois Appellate Court decision ordering a new trial nearly eight years after the shooting. The court found that city attorneys improperly excluded Black jurors during the 2023 trial and ruled that key claims, including civil conspiracy, were wrongly dismissed. The decision reverses the prior verdict in favor of the officers and reopens questions about how the case was tried and how accountability is pursued (Block Club Chicago).
Reflecting on “Six Durations of a Split Second: The Killing of Harith Augustus”
Thank you for engaging with the investigation. After taking some time to digest the content, we invite you to reflect with us.
Some questions to help guide your reflection:
What was your reaction to the initial media release of the incident? Have your feelings changed after accessing more footage and analysis?
Why was it important for you to see this video installation? What’s the value of seeing such footage?
What were you prepared to feel? What was unexpected?