Only a handful of deaths in the United States have resulted in a police officer mistakenly drawing a Taser instead of a pistol, as did the Minnesota police who shot Daunte Wright, and most cases did not result. to criminal charges against officers.
Kimberly Potter, 48, a 26-year veteran, fatally shot Wright during a traffic stop Sunday when she made the tragic mistake, Brooklyn Center police chief Tim Gannon told reporters Monday.
“Holy st,” is heard in a creepy camera video. “I just shot him!”
The senior officer accidentally pulled out his firearm despite being trained to place his Glock semi-automatic pistol and Taser gripped with a pistol on opposite sides of the service belt, the chief said.
Similar shootings have occurred at least 11 times across the United States since 1999, when Taser introduced the Advanced Taser M-26, according to the report published in Star Tribune.
Older tasers were shaped more like a TV remote control, the newspaper noted.
In 2001, police officer Thomas Schrum of Sacramento, California, shot Steven Yount in the butt while resisting arrest, according to the report.
Schrum later said he thought he had drawn the Taser on the suspect, who survived the shooting.
At the time, Taser had only recently introduced its M26 in the form of a handgun, a model the company said was manufactured according to customer preferences. It was later replaced by other models that are also gun-shaped.
Most cases in which officers have mistaken a service gun for a Taser have not been fatal.
In 2002, in Rochester, Minnesota, police officer Gregory Siem told investigators he mistakenly drew the Glock instead of the Taser and shot Christopher Atak in the back while trying to subdue him.
Siem was not criminally charged, and Atak won a $ 900,000 settlement in a civil lawsuit, according to the newspaper.
But two cases in California and one in Oklahoma were fatal.
Officials involved in the deaths of Everardo Torres in Madera, California, in 2002, Oscar Grant III in Oakland, California, in 2009, and Eric Courtney Harris in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2015, said they had also intended to draw the your Tasers.
The Star Tribune said Brooklyn Center police did not answer their question about which model used Taser Potter.
The Taser, which fires two spike darts connected to thin wires, provides an electric current that incapacitates the muscles.
The weapon can be easily distinguished from pistols, manufacturer Axon Enterprise said in a statement.
The tasers, available in yellow and black, have different grips and are lighter than pistols and have an LED screen that lights up when the security is off.
“Axon also specifically warns of the possibility of gun confusion and provides training recommendations to mitigate it,” the company statement said.
“Based on the recommendations of the force expert, Axon recommends that a Taser power weapon be placed on the non-dominant side of an officer and the firearm on the dominant side,” he added.
According to the Brooklyn Center police manual, all Tasers must be clearly and clearly marked to differentiate them from the officer’s firearm, according to the Star Tribune.
Police officers must also undergo annual training on the use of the weapon.
