POLICE CHIEF: MINNESOTA OFFICER MEANT TO DRAW TASER, NOT HANDGUN
Demonstrations, curfew follow fatal shooting of Black man in traffic stop
The suburban Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot a 20year-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 body-camera 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 that is 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 2020 death of George Floyd. Chauvin’s trial is expected to end Monday, the judge in the case intimated.
The Brooklyn Center officer was identified Monday evening as Kim Potter, who has been with the department for 26 years. She remains on administrative leave, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety announced.
The city faced a second night of protests; the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul both 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.
At 6 p.m. local time, an hour before curfew, hundreds of people joined Wright’s family for a vigil held at the site where he was
killed.
The crowd remained silent as a trumpeter played “Lift Every Voice and Sing” — often referred to as the “Black national anthem” — then a minister introduced Wright’s mother, Katie Wright.
“My heart is literally broken into a thousand pieces, and I don’t know what to do or what to say. But I just need everybody to know that he is much more than this,” she said, holding back tears.
“I just need everyone to know that he was my life, he was my son, and I can never get that back,” she added.
After the vigil, the crowd outside the Brooklyn Center police station, where police had already set up fencing, grew to more than 100 people. The size of the law enforcement presence — made up of police and state troopers as well as National Guard troops — had grown as well, with many officers holding batons at the ready.
About 90 minutes after the curfew deadline, police began firing gas canisters and flash-bang grenades, sending clouds wafting over the crowd and chasing some away. Some protesters picked up smoke canisters and threw them back toward police. Others shot fireworks toward police lines. A long line of police in riot gear, rhythmically pushing their clubs in front of them, began slowly forcing back the remaining crowds.
“Move back!” the police chanted. “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” the crowd chanted back.
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 20year-old dead, a family devastated and a community on edge.”
He pledged to demand that the state Legislature hold hearings on police policies he said have passed in other states with the support of law enforcement and community groups.
“We can stop pretending that this is just the natural order of the universe and that things happen this way,” Walz added.
The inquiry will focus on the police response when officers pulled Wright over for a traffic violation.
The roughly one-minute video clip played by the police chief at a news conference starts with two 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 approaches from behind to assist. As Wright struggles, the third officer is heard threatening to use a Taser on Wright.
In the chaotic seven seconds that follow, the 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 the 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 officer. Orput told the Star Tribune that he expects his office to do a “thorough yet expedited” review of the case and to make a determination no later than Wednesday morning.
“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.
Wright was stopped just before 2 p.m. Sunday for having expired registration tags, the chief said. At Monday’s news conference, an angry audience member noted that the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles was experiencing a two- to three-month backlog because of the coronavirus pandemic. The chief said that after running Wright’s identification, an officer discovered that he had an outstanding warrant for a misdemeanor and police tried to arrest him.
Wright’s family said he had spoken to them by phone just moments before he was shot.
Katie Wright told the Star Tribune that her son had called her after being pulled over and that she heard a commotion and then someone yelling, “Daunte, don’t run” before the line disconnected. Moments later, she said, her son’s girlfriend, who was in the car, called back and said he’d been shot.