Officer meant to use stun gun, chief says
The suburban Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot a 20-year-old Black man during a traffic stop Sunday apparently meant to fire a stun gun but instead made an “accidental discharge” from her firearm, the police chief said Monday.
Less than 24 hours after an officer with the Brooklyn Center Police Department shot and killed Daunte Wright, Police Chief Tim Gannon played an unedited clip of police bodycamera video showing the fatal incident for the media and members of the community at a City Hall news conference.
The shooting further roiled a community already on edge as it awaits a verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murder in the Memorial Day death of George Floyd. Chauvin’s trial is expected to wrap this week, with closing arguments expected next Monday, the judge in the case said.
Concerned that protests Sunday night prompted by the Wright shooting could resume Monday night, the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul each announced curfews. Major League Baseball’s Minnesota Twins and the National Basketball Association’s Minnesota Timberwolves postponed Monday’s games. President Joe Biden phoned Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott to express his support but said he would reserve judgment until an investigation is done.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, expressed his sympathies to Wright’s family during an afternoon news conference and said it was important to acknowledge that “we don’t have to continue having these press conferences, and having what may be a routine traffic stop and a 20-year-old dead, a family devastated and a community on edge.”
He pledged to demand the state Legislature hold hearings on police policies he said have passed in other states with the support of law enforcement and community.
“We can stop pretending that this is just the natural order of the universe and that things happen this way,” Walz added.
The roughly one-minute video clip played by the police chief at a tense news conference starts with two male officers approaching Wright’s car, one on either side. After a brief conversation, the officer on the driver’s side takes Wright out of the car and begins to handcuff him. Wright struggles and a third officer, a woman, approaches from behind to assist. As Wright struggles, the third officer is heard threatening to use a stun gun on Wright.
In the chaotic seven seconds that follow, the female officer, who already has a weapon drawn, is heard yelling, “I’ll Tase you!” and then “Taser! Taser! Taser!” before firing.
Immediately afterward, she is heard saying, “Holy s---, I shot him,” apparently realizing that she had fired her service weapon instead of her stun gun.
Gannon described it as an “accidental discharge that resulted in the tragic death of Mr. Wright.”
Gannon declined to identify the officer but described her as a veteran of the department and said she was immediately placed on leave pending the outcome of an investigation into the shooting. His refusal to answer additional questions about the officer angered some in the audience during the tense City Hall briefing.
“Why is it that police officers in the United States keep killing young Black men and young Black women at a far, far, far higher rate than they do white people?” one of the attendees asked.
“I don’t have an answer to that question,” Gannon replied.
City officials shared their opposing views during the news conference, with Elliott saying the officer should be fired. Gannon and City Manager Curt Boganey said they wanted to hear from the officer herself and give her due process.
The political sparring continued with the city council voting later Monday to give the mayor command authority over the police department. The city manager was fired.
Meanwhile, the office of Washington County Attorney Pete Orput will determine whether to bring charges against the unidentified officer. Orput told the Star Tribune that he expects his office to do a “thorough yet expedited” review of the case.
“I’m hoping Wednesday, but I want to have the opportunity to give my condolences to his family and explain to them my decision,” Orput told the newspaper.
Two miles away from where officials were briefing the media, several dozen people gathered in the rain outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department as officers and Minnesota National Guard troops stood watch.
Wright was stopped just before 2 p.m. Sunday for having expired registration tags, the chief said.