Video After The Jump
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. (AP) — The police officer who fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb apparently intended to fire a Taser, not a handgun, the city’s police chief said Monday.
Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon described the shooting as “an accidental discharge.” The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was investigating.
“Taser! Taser! Taser!” the officer is heard shouting on her body cam footage released at a news conference. After firing a single shot from her handgun, the car speeds away and the officer is heard saying, “Holy (expletive)! I shot him.”
Daunte Wright, 20, died Sunday in a metropolitan area that was already on edge because of the trial of the first of four police officers charged in George Floyd’s death.
Gannon said at a news conference that the officer made a mistake, and he released the body camera footage less than 24 hours after the shooting. The footage showed three officers around a stopped car. When another officer attempts to handcuff Wright, a struggle ensues.
Gannon would not name the officer but described her as “very senior.” He would not say whether she would be fired following the investigation.
“I think we can watch the video and ascertain whether she will be returning,” the chief said.
Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott called the shooting “deeply tragic.”
“We’re going to do everything we can to ensure that justice is done and our communities are made whole,” he said.
Speaking before the unrest, Wright’s mother, Katie Wright, urged protesters to stay peaceful and focused on the loss of her son.
“All the violence, if it keeps going, it’s only going to be about the violence. We need it to be about why my son got shot for no reason,” she said to a crowd near the shooting scene in Brooklyn Center, a city of about 30,000 people on the northwest border of Minneapolis. “We need to make sure it’s about him and not about smashing police cars, because that’s not going to bring my son back.”
Protesters who gathered near the scene waved flags and signs reading “Black Lives Matter.” Others walked peacefully with their hands held up. On one street, someone wrote in multi-colored chalk: “Justice for Daunte Wright.”
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