Harry D. Mitts Jr. was born on June 18, 1952, in the state of Ohio, where he spent most of his life. He had several siblings and attended Garfield Heights High School, graduating in 1970. He later studied photojournalism in college for over a year and a half but did not complete a degree.

At some point in adulthood, Mitts got married and had a daughter. However, the marriage eventually ended in divorce. His ex-wife later married a police officer and was granted custody of their daughter, a detail that reportedly caused Mitts deep emotional distress. He struggled with the loss of his family life and, over the years, developed signs of emotional instability and resentment.

By the time of the killings in 1994, Mitts had been living in Garfield Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. According to later court documents, he had a history of alcohol abuse, and he was intoxicated at the time of the shootings. There is no record of prior criminal convictions.

On August 14, 1994, Harry Mitts Jr., then 42 years old, went on a six-hour shooting rampage in his Garfield Heights neighborhood that left two people dead and two police officers wounded. The incident began shortly after he had an argument with his ex-wife. Fueled by rage and alcohol, Mitts retrieved several firearms, including a .44 Magnum and a 9mm pistol, and took to the streets.

His first target was John Bryant, a 28-year-old African-American man who was dating Mitts’s white neighbor. Witnesses said Mitts shouted racial slurs at Bryant before fatally shooting him at close range while the couple was returning from a grocery trip. Although Mitts warned others not to intervene, two neighbors helped carry the gravely wounded Bryant back inside the apartment. Unfortunately, Bryant succumbed to his injuries from a single gunshot to the chest.

Shortly after, Garfield Heights police responded to the scene. Mitts had barricaded himself in his apartment with multiple weapons. Officers Lieutenant Thomas Kaiser and Sergeant Dennis Glivar, both white, approached in an attempt to de-escalate the situation. But before they could act, Mitts burst from the door wielding a gun in each hand and opened fire. Sergeant Glivar was struck by seven bullets, fatally wounding him in the heart, lungs, liver, kidney, and stomach. Lieutenant Kaiser was shot in the chest but managed to take cover and survive.

Mitts refused to surrender, reportedly telling Kaiser that the only way the standoff would end was if the police killed him. A third officer, John Mackey of the Maple Heights Police Department, arrived to assist in evacuating residents trapped inside the building. Mitts fired on Mackey as well, injuring him. A second shootout took place before Mitts was wounded. Hours later, police lobbed tear gas into the building, prompting Mitts to finally surrender.

He was hospitalized at MetroHealth Medical Center for gunshot injuries. Both officers Mackey and Kaiser survived and later recovered. Mitts was charged with two counts of aggravated murder and two counts of attempted murder.

A grand jury indicted Mitts on August 25, 1994. A pre-trial competency hearing determined on September 21, 1994, that he was fit to stand trial. The trial began on October 24, 1994, and Mitts entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming his intoxicated state impaired his mental capacity. However, the jury was not persuaded.

On November 3, 1994, Mitts was found guilty of all charges. On November 15, the jury recommended the death penalty for both murders. On November 21, Judge William Aurelius formally sentenced Mitts to death and handed down additional prison terms for the attempted murders and firearm charges. He entered death row custody at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility on December 6, 1994.

For nearly two decades, Mitts filed multiple appeals. These were denied by the Ohio Supreme Court (1998, 2003), the Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals (2000, 2002), and federal courts. In 2010, the Sixth Circuit Court initially overturned his death sentence due to improper jury instructions during the original trial. However, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed that decision on May 2, 2011, reinstating his death penalty.

With all appeals exhausted, Mitts received a death warrant. A formal clemency hearing was held on August 19, 2013, where Mitts begged for forgiveness, claimed he had found faith in prison, and insisted his actions were due to intoxication and personal grief—not racial hatred. The Ohio Parole Board rejected his plea on August 27, unanimously concluding that the murders were racially motivated and that Mitts showed a callous disregard for life.

Governor John Kasich agreed with the board's recommendation, and the execution moved forward. In a notable act of forgiveness, the family of Sergeant Glivar sent Mitts a Bible days before his death.

On September 25, 2013, at 10:39 a.m., 61-year-old Harry Mitts Jr. was executed by lethal injection using pentobarbital.