STRONG MESSAGE
A tear rolls down the face of Afatiha Reynosa during a rally at Rose Park in Milwaukee on Monday in response to the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, by a Minnesota police officer on Sunday. On Monday, the police chief said he believed the officer intended to fire a Taser, not a gun.
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. – Police in Minnesota on Monday released footage from the body-worn camera of the officer who fatally shot a 20-year-old Black man, and the police chief said he believed the officer intended to fire a stun gun during the incident.
Daunte Wright, 20, died after the traffic stop in Brooklyn Center on Sunday.
The brief body-camera video released Monday shows one officer on the driver side and one officer on the passenger side of Wright’s car. The video is taken from the perspective of the third officer standing behind the vehicle. Shortly after police approach, Wright gets out of the car and the officer on the driver side begins to handcuff him.
But Wright pulls away and reenters the driver seat as an officer pulls out her firearm. She is heard saying, “I’ll tase you! I’ll tase you! Taser! Taser! Taser!” After she fires a shot, the car drives away and the officer says, “Oh (expletive), I just shot him.”
Police said the car drove several more blocks before striking another vehicle. They said the driver died at the scene, and a woman in the passenger seat was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
“It is my belief that the officer had the intention to deploy their Taser but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet,” Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said Monday.
During the news conference, community members watching from the lobby of the Police Department headquarters expressed their anger as others protested outside.
“This is murder. This is white supremacy. Who’s going to stand up for our ancestors who built this land but are still kept down?” said Jonathan Mason, a community activist.
In a statement, NAACP National President Derrick Johnson said Wright “should be alive today.”
“Whether it be carelessness and negligence, or a blatant modern-day lynching, the result is the same. Another Black man has died at the hands of police,” Johnson said.
Police responded to protests Sunday with riot gear as demonstrators gathered in the city, mourning Wright’s death. Video posted to Twitter showed police firing gas and a chemical agent at protesters who gathered at the police department Sunday night.
Brooklyn Center Police Department said in a statement that officers initiated a traffic stop around 2 p.m. Sunday. The statement did not indicate what the initial stop was for other than “a traffic violation.” Officers determined the driver had an outstanding warrant and tried to take the driver into custody, police said.
Daunte’s mother, Katie Wright, told reporters her son was driving a vehicle the family had given him weeks ago and called her as he was being pulled over with his girlfriend in the car, The New York Times reported.
“He called me at about 1:40, said he was getting pulled over by the police,” she said in a Facebook Live video. “He said they pulled him over because he had air fresheners hanging from his rearview mirror.”
People gathered in Brooklyn Center after news spread of Wright’s death.
Wright’s family and friends were among those who marched in the streets and carried signs and flags that read Black Lives Matter.
About 100 people had gathered near the scene where Wright died, according to the Star-Tribune. Protesters pushed past police tape, confronting officers donning riot gear and breaking the windshields of two police cars. Police fired non-lethal rounds to try to disperse the crowd, the newspaper reported.
At the police department, a large crowd was met with armored police officers who formed a riot line. The protest there had been largely peaceful until then. Police issued dispersal orders and fired tear gas, flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets into the crowd of around 500 people that had gathered, the StarTribune reported.
John Harrington, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, said protesters started throwing rocks and other objects. The group had mostly dispersed by about 1:15 a.m. Monday.
At the Shingle Creek shopping center, about 20 businesses had been broken into, he said. The Star-Tribune reported that looters targeted a Walmart and destroyed several businesses nearby.
Windows of a GameStop and UPS stores were broken Monday morning, and debris was on the ground outside.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz imposed a curfew from 7 p.m. Monday until 6 a.m. Tuesday for three counties that include Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis and the capital of St. Paul. National Guard members and state law enforcement personnel were called in to patrol around the Twin Cities.
“I am closely monitoring the situation in Brooklyn Center. Gwen and I are praying for Daunte Wright’s family as our state mourns another life of a Black man taken by law enforcement,” Walz tweeted Sunday.
“Our hearts are with (Wright’s) family, and with all those in our community impacted by this tragedy,” Elliott said in a statement. “While we await additional information from the BCA (Bureau of Criminal Apprehension) who is leading the investigation, we continue to ask that members of our community gathering do so peacefully, amid our calls for transparency and accountability.”
Brooklyn Center Community Schools’ buildings were closed Monday, and classes were being held virtually, Superintendent Dr. Carly Baker said in a statement.
“We are focused on taking steps in the moment. I haven’t entirely processed the tragedy that took place in our community and I’m prioritizing the safety and wellbeing of our students, families, staff members and community members,” Baker said.
In Minneapolis, photos shared on social media showed people gathering at the site of George Floyd’s death, which has turned into a memorial, and painting “Justice for Daunte Wright” on the street.
As she spoke with her son during the traffic stop, Katie Wright said she told him to give the phone to officers so she could give them insurance information, The New York Times reported.
“Then I heard the police officer come to the window and say, ‘Put the phone down and get out of the car,’ ” she said, according to the Times.
Wright told the Star-Tribune that she heard a scuffle during the call and someone say, “Daunte, don’t run.” The call ended, and when she called back, Wright’s girlfriend told his mother that he had been shot, the Star-Tribune reported.
Aubrey Wright told The Washington Post that his son was driving to get the car washed when he was shot.
Wright said he was at the grocery store when his wife called him to tell him that their son had been shot. He told the Post he arrived at the scene within 10 minutes and saw his son’s 2011 Buick LaCrosse partially destroyed and his body on the ground with a sheet over it.
“I know my son. He was scared. He still (had) the mind of a 17-year-old because we babied him,” Wright told the Post. “If he was resisting an arrest, you could Tase him. I don’t understand it.”
Daunte Wright had a 2-year-old son, his father told the newspaper. He said Wright dropped out of high school because of a learning disability but worked various retail and restaurant jobs to support his son.
“He was a great kid,” Wright told the Post. “He was a normal kid. He was never in serious trouble. He enjoyed spending time with his 2-year-old son. He loved his son.”
In a tweet Monday, civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton said he had spoken with Wright’s father and said his group, the National Action Network, “will stand w/ this family and demand justice in this matter.”
On Monday morning in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred, crime scene tape remained, but police were not present.
Jennifer Nagel, 38, of Brooklyn Center, was out cleaning up the street. “We have to take care of each other,” Nagel, a teacher and mother of young children, said. “This could’ve been any of those students, my students.”
“This is the wrong time for another Black man to get killed by the police,” said Des Odoms, 30, whose apartment is near the police station. Odoms said tear gas was fired at his apartment as he watched the protests unfold Sunday.
The shooting comes after at least two other cases in which Brooklyn Center police shot or Tased someone who later died.