‘Cop mistook gun for taser’
Officer got confused and accidentally shot Wright, says chief
The policewoman who fatally shot a 20-year-old Black man in a Minneapolis suburb accidentally confused her handgun with her taser, police said, fuelling tensions in this city already on edge because of the George Floyd murder trial.
“The officer drew their handgun instead of their taser,” Brooklyn Center police chief Tim Gannon said at a press conference about Sunday’s shooting of Daunte Wright.
Gannon said it was his belief that the officer, who has been placed 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,” Gannon said.
“There is nothing I can say to lessen the pain of Mr Wright’s family.”
Gannon showed reporters police body camera video of the shooting, which sparked protests overnight in Brooklyn Center and looting of a shopping mall.
In the video, police officers are seen pulling Wright out of his car after stopping him for a traffic violation and discovering he had an outstanding warrant.
As Wright scuffles with the officers and gets back into the driver’s seat of the car, a female police officer shouts “I’ll tase you” and then “taser, taser, taser.”
“Holy s***, I shot him,” the officer says as Wright, fatally wounded, drives away.
Officials later identified the officer who shot black motorist Daunte Wright as Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Centre Police Department.
The protests overnight prompted the defence attorney for former officer Derek Chauvin, who is facing murder and manslaughter charges for George Floyd’s death, to ask the
judge presiding over the high-profile case to sequester the jury.
Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s lawyer, said he was concerned that the protests over Wright’s death could influence the jurors.
“A verdict in this case is going to have consequences,” Nelson said.
“Will the jury be confident to make a decision regardless of the potential outcome of their decision?”
Prosecutors opposed the request and so did the judge.
“This is a totally different case,” Judge Peter Cahill said.
“I’m not going to sequester them. We’ll sequester them on Monday when I anticipate doing closing,” he said, referring to closing arguments.