BREAKING: Police officer who fired a single shot that killed Daunte Wright, a Black man, intended to discharge a Taser, Minnesota police chief says. https://t.co/vz3NqCCNwE
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 12, 2021
Here’s more from AP:
Police in a Minneapolis suburb where a Black man was fatally shot during a traffic stop say the officer who fired intended to use a Taser, not a handgun.
Police Chief Tim Gannon described the shooting as “an accidental discharge.”
The man identified by relatives as 20-year-old Daunte Wright died Sunday in Brooklyn Center, a city of about 30,000 people on the northwest border of Minneapolis. His death sparked violent protests, with officers in riot gear clashing with demonstrators into Monday morning.
The Minneapolis area was already on edge because of the trial of the first of four police officers charged in George Floyd’s death.
Police have released video of the somewhat graphic altercation, which begins at 1:24:
CONTENT WARNING
You can clearly hear the officer say ‘shit, I shot him’ after repeatedly yelling ‘taser’ to warn the other officers, suggesting she meant to tase Wright instead during the panicked situation.
But as tragic as this may have been given the accidental discharge, Wright tried to get away from cops while they were trying to handcuff him. None of this would have happened if he hadn’t resisted and fought the officers and allowed them to arrest him. He’d still be alive today.