The Brooklyn Center police on Monday said the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright came by way of a rare mistake: An officer drew a service pistol when she thought she was holding a Taser.
A gun-Taser mix-up by a police officer has been blamed for a handful of deaths in the U.S. — at least three others nationwide — since Tasers with a pistol-grip were first introduced more than two decades ago.
Most of the cases did not lead to criminal charges against the police officer. A criminal complaint for the Brooklyn Center case may be filed as early as this week, according to Washington County Attorney Pete Orput.
At a news conference on Monday during which body camera footage of the Sunday afternoon shooting was shown, Brooklyn Center police Chief Tim Gannon said he believed the officer — later identified as department veteran Kimberly A. Potter — meant to use her Taser.
“I’m not in the mind of the officer,” Gannon said during the news conference. “I can only see what you’re seeing. I can couple that with much of the training that I have received and that’s why I’m believing it to be an accidental discharge.”
In footage of the moments before Potter shot Wright, she can be heard shouting “Taser!” three times, the department’s standard warning to the target and bystanders that a conducted energy device is about to be deployed.
Moments after the shot, in apparent shock, the officer can be heard saying, “Holy shit, I just shot him.”
According to press and court filings reviewed by the Star Tribune, similar shootings have happened at least 11 times nationwide since 1999 — the year when Taser introduced the handgun-shaped Advanced Taser M-26. Earlier Tasers were shaped more like a TV remote control, and an early case hinged on the change.
In 2001, Sacramento police officer Thomas Schrum shot Steven Yount once in the buttock as Yount fought with officers who were attempting to place him under arrest. Yount lived, and Schrum said afterward that he thought he had drawn his Taser.
It was a novel case at the time: Taser had only recently introduced its Advanced Taser M26 model with a pistol grip, a change the company said was driven by customer preference.
The Taser M-26 was later replaced by other models that are also handgun-shaped, and nearly all departments use such models.
Inquiries with the Brooklyn Center Police Department seeking information about which model of Taser the department uses were not immediately returned Monday.
The Taser can fire two barbed darts that are connected to thin wires. The weapon delivers an electric current that incapacitates muscles. When it works, the weapon makes people fall down with their bodies locked in a rigid state. They can be easily distinguished from handguns, according to a statement Monday by the maker of Tasers, Axon Enterprise.
Tasers have different grips and are heavier than pistols, and the weapons have an LED screen that lights up when the safety is turned off. Some Tasers are bright yellow, but the weapon is also available in black.
“Axon also specifically warns of the possibility of weapon confusion and provides training recommendations to mitigate against it. Based on recommendations by use of force experts, Axon recommends that a TASER energy weapon be placed on an officer’s non-dominant side, and firearm on the dominant side,” the statement read.
The Brooklyn Center Police Department policy manual says officers must complete training before using the Taser, and must carry it in an approved holster and on the opposite hip as their firearm. The manual does not dictate which side of the body officers must wear the Taser, although chief Gannon on Monday said officers are trained to wear the Taser according to which hand is dominant.
It’s not unusual for police departments to instruct officers to wear the Taser on their non-dominant side so that they must reach across their body to draw it from its holster. A righthanded person, for example, would wear the Taser on their left hip.
The Brooklyn Center police manual says all Tasers must be clearly and distinctly marked to differentiate them from the officer’s firearm. Officers are also required to undergo annual proficiency training for the Taser.
Most cases where officers have mistaken a service pistol for a Taser — including a previous case in Minnesota — have not been fatal. Most have resulted in injuries.
In 2002, a Rochester, Minn., police officer shot a man in the back while trying to subdue him, later telling investigators that he had mistakenly drawn his Glock service pistol when he wanted to use a Taser. The man who was shot, Christofar Atak, survived with a wound to his lower back.
Police officer Gregory Siem was not criminally charged, and Atak later won a $900,000 settlement in a civil suit.
In three cases that did prove fatal — Everardo Torres in Madera, Calif., in 2002; Oscar Grant III in Oakland, Calif., in 2009; and Eric Courtney Harris in Tulsa, Okla., in 2015 — the officers involved said they had intended to use their Taser, not their service weapon.
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The officer would not have pulled either weapon had the suspect not decided that running was the appropriate response to being placed under arrest for outstanding warrants.
AND if he had outstanding warrants, WHY WAS HE Not already arrested?? Do they not bother sending officers to his home address anymore, once the warrant gets issued??
You know that chubby officer you see get out of a patrol car. Well that is systemic lack of training on the police departments. These officers should be training twice a week for at least 2 hours each session. This is to keep the weight down, their awareness high, and their muscle memory sharp just in case an incident like this happens. It is a no brainer. Practice makes perfect.
So, who are you more apt to listen to. The aware svelt officer in control or the chubby one holding his pistol waiting for you to make the next move.
I DO often wonder, WHY IT IS you need to meet a physical fitness test, to GET TO become a cop. BUT ONCE IN uniform, there is NO Physical fitness requirements, no matter HOW LONG you are in??
IMO THEY should have exactly the same sort of testing requirements the military does.
A gun-Taser mix-up by a police officer has been blamed
This would not have occured had the perp not decided to run.
The sad thing is, this officer will go to jail. The jury will be gutless and railroad this officer. Secondly, as stated in the above comments, these people of color, will not listen to police officers and they bring about their own demise.
Crying parents lamenting the fact that they failed to teach their offspring to at least obey a police officer. Nope, never happen…….The cop should have let him run….. Blacks do not have to comply with orders from white cops. Reason? Cops are racists……
AND knowing the SPINELESSNESS running rampant in Minessota, the family will likely get rich too.
I’m sure Joe Biden’s teleprompter scripter will have him opine: “Well . .yeah . .if you say it ‘fast’, taser sounds a LOT like ‘GLOCK’. . .”
Apparently, according to today’s news on it, she’s a 25 yr VET, and was also an instructor..
SO IF TRUE< her "mistaking her tazer for her glock' is looking a lot less believable.