Officer, police chief resign after shooting
Experts: Taser confusion errors are rare, avoidable
When Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, police officer Kim Potter allegedly mistook her service weapon for a stun gun and fatally shot an unarmed Black motorist Sunday, it was at least the 16th such “weapons confusion” incident in the United States since 2001.
And the victim, Daunte Wright, was at least the fourth person to have died as a result, according to data compiled by the website FatalEncounters.org and University of Colorado professor Paul Taylor, who tracks such cases.
These types of incidents are rare, experts say, although no government agency tracks the use of Taser-like devices nationwide so it’s impossible to say how many times it has occurred.
What is certain is that these scenarios are avoidable. When they do happen, it’s typically the result of inadequate or lapsed officer training,
according to at least a half-dozen weapons and law enforcement experts interviewed by the USA TODAY Network.
“Police agencies only tend to train up to the manufacturer recommendation,” said Brian Higgins, a former police chief in New Jersey and an expert in use of force and police training issues.
Most law enforcement agencies require officers to undergo annual training and retraining on use of the device. They also require officers to wear their Tasers on the side opposite their service weapon, to avoid confusion.
Most Taser confusion incidents are attributed to officers holstering a stun gun on the same side as their service weapon, according to David Klinger, a former police officer and an expert in deadly force.
It’s unclear from body cam footage where Potter wore her Taser.
Previous cases
Before Sunday’s incident, the most recent cases occurred in 2019, when there were two. Both victims survived.
Brian Rilling, 40, of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was shot and seriously injured during a scuffle in a police holding cell in March 2019.
The officer who shot him, Cpl. Matt Zimmerman, a 33-year veteran of the force, was trained and certified only once –11 years earlier – on how to use the Taser, despite a 2007 department policy that required annual retraining.
Later it was learned that all but two New Hope officers had outdated Taser certifications.
Zimmerman retired from the department days before the Bucks County district attorney found the shooting was not justified but excused the officer, saying it was an honest mistake.
Two months after the Pennsylvania accident, another one occurred.
Ashley Hall was shot in May 2019 by Ladue, Missouri, police Officer Julia Crews, in a Schnucks grocery store parking lot. According to media reports, 33-year-old Hall told Crews she had been assaulted. Police also said Hall was suspected of shoplifting a cart full of food and hitting a worker.
Crews tried to handcuff Hall, stating she was not under arrest. Hall fled.
Crews ordered Hall to stop and warned her she would use her Taser. But instead she fired her service weapon and shot Hall in the back.
Crews was charged with second-degree assault in the case. The case is pending, although Ladue in October agreed to pay $2 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed by Hall.
Brooklyn Center policies
The Brooklyn Center Police Department’s Taser protocols are posted online and appear similar to policies other U.S. police departments follow.
● Officers are required to holster Tasers on the opposite side as their service weapon, which is kept on their dominant side.
● A verbal warning when practical should be made before the Taser is deployed.
● Officers must complete department-approved training to be issued and carry a Taser.
● Annual proficiency training is mandatory, and a reassessment of an officer’s knowledge or practical skill can be required at any time at the request of the training sergeant.
● Officers should make a “reasonable effort” to aim the Taser at the lower center mass, avoiding the head, chest or groin areas.
● A Taser should be considered only when the suspect’s conduct “reasonably appears to present the potential harm to officers, themselves or others or will result in substantial property loss or damage.”
The USA TODAY Network has requested from a copy of Potter’s Taser training history. It was not immediately provided.
Brooklyn Center needs to determine if this was a failure of training or an issue specific to Potter, such as inability to handle high-stress situations or going too long without training with a Taser, said Higgins, the use of force expert.
It could be both.
Stun guns vs. service weapons
Stun guns, such as Tasers, are lighter than a service weapon and often have highly visible yellow colors. They are designed not to resemble a gun in order to avoid such confusion, said Higgins.
But making stun guns look and feel different from service weapons won’t solve these mistakes, said Von Kleim, a spokesman for Force Science Institute in Minnesota and use of force expert. “The people who design the Taser need to have a serious conversation whether a design change is worth the additional mitigation of this error,” he said.
Slip errors – where the officer has the right intention but the wrong execution – most likely occur when a police officer deviates from automatic processes like drawing a firearm, Kleim said.
Slip errors are hard to prevent and highly resistant to correction. The most frequent way to prevent them is a complete redesign to generate a significantly different motor response, Kleim said.
Training failures abound
In virtually every Taser confusion incident there is some training failure found, Higgins said.
Axon Enterprises, which manufactures Taser, recommends but does not mandate yearly recertification for users.
Tasers work by shooting two barbs connected to thin wires that deliver 50,000 volts of electricity into the body, temporarily paralyzing the nervous system and muscles.
Regular skills training with the device should include simulated high-tension situations where officers face splitsecond decisions, said Greg Meyer, a certified force science analyst, former head of the Los Angeles Police Department training academy and a retired LAPD captain.
As part of police academy training, police are drilled to draw their side arm without consciously thinking about it until it becomes an automatic response.
“You almost have to untrain that muscle memory,” Higgins added.