’Holy s..t, I shot him!’ Cop error sparks riot
MINNEAPOLIS: A Minneapolis curfew has been imposed after a police officer fatally shot a young black man when she confused her handgun with her taser, fuelling tensions in a US city already on edge because of the George Floyd murder trial.
Police body camera footage shows the officer shouting “Taser! Taser! Taser!” but then instead fires a gun at the victim, 20-year-old father Daunte Wright.
“The officer drew their handgun instead of their taser,” Brooklyn Centre police chief Tim Gannon said.
Mr Gannon said it was his belief that the officer, who is now on leave pending an investigation, “had the intention to deploy their taser but instead shot Mr Wright with a single bullet”.
“This was an accidental discharge that resulted in the tragic death of Mr Wright,” Mr Gannon said. “There is nothing I can say to lessen the pain of Mr Wright’s family.”
The killing sparked protests in Brooklyn Centre and the looting of a shopping
mall, and authorities in Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs announced a curfew from 7pm to 6am local time.
In the bodycam footage, police officers are seen pulling Wright out of his car after stopping him for a traffic violation and discovering he had an outstanding warrant.
When officers attempt to handcuff Wright he scuffles with them and gets back in the car. A female police officer shouts “I’ll tase you” and then “Taser! Taser! Taser!” – which is standard police procedure before an officer fires one of the stun guns.
“Holy shit, I shot him,” the officer says as Wright, fatally
wounded, drives off. He crashed his car a few blocks away and was pronounced dead at the scene.
How she mistook her gun for a taser was unclear. Mr Gannon said police were trained to place handguns “on our dominant side, and our taser on our weak side”.
President Joe Biden called the killing “tragic,” but warned against any potential violent unrest.
Brooklyn Center, where Wright was shot, is a suburb of Minneapolis located not far from Hennepin County Government Centre where ex-officer Derek Chauvin is on trial for George’s Floyd’s murder.