A Minnesota officer apparently intended to use Taser not a gun, during a struggle with a black man, according to a police officials.
The shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in the Minneapolis area appeared to be a "accidental discharge" of a police officer pulled out his pistol instead of removing Taser during the struggle, a police official said on Monday.
The Sunday shooting that killed Wright, a black man, came after traffic officers pulled over a car in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, away from where the case of Derek Chauvin, a former white Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd, continues.
Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon unveiled camera-wearing camera images at a press conference on Monday. It showed the struggle between Wright and the official. Wright then returned to the car and was heard shouting "Taser, Taser."
After that, the car sped away, and a female police officer was heard shouting: “Holy sh * t! I just shot him. ”
Gannon commented: "It seems to me, from what I have seen and the response and the police pressure immediately after that, that this was an accidental eviction that led to Mr. Wright's tragic death."
Wright's death has sparked widespread protests at the Brooklyn Center, which has turned violent.
The mayor of neighboring Minneapolis has declared a state of emergency and the governor of Minnesota has announced that the curfew will run from 7pm Monday (00:00 GMT) until 6am (11:00 GMT) on Tuesday in counties including Minneapolis and St. Paul. Former Minneapolis police chief Derek Chauvin is now facing charges of murdering George Floyd, which sparked protests across the United States and in other parts of the world last summer.
‘No one is above the law’
President Joe Biden, who described the video of Wright's assassination as "very clear", said an investigation would be needed to determine what happened.
He told reporters that he had not spoken to Wright's family but had conveyed his prayers to them and said he understood the anger, pain and suffering of the Black community in the repeated killings of police officers.
Later, the president said he was thinking of Wright and his family - "the pain, anger, and suffering that Black Americans experience every day."
"While we await the full investigation, we know what we need to do to move forward: rebuild trust and ensure accountability so no one is above the law," Biden wrote on Twitter.
The Minnesota National Guard was patrolling the Brooklyn Center police headquarters and law enforcement officers had erected a concrete bar as Minnesota State Patrol police joined the front line.
"I want to say that our hearts ache right now," Brooklyn Mayor Mike Elliott told the forum. “We are in pain right now. And we see that this could not have happened at the worst possible time.
“We’ll get to the end of this,” Elliott said. "We will do everything in our power to ensure that justice is done for Daunte Wright."
Wright's mother, Katie Wright, told the media on Sunday that she had received a call from her son on Sunday afternoon telling him that police had dragged her with air-conditioning fans hanging from her rearview mirror, which is illegal in Minnesota. He could hear police telling his son to get out of the car, he said.
In a statement, Brooklyn Center police said police dragged a man with the intention of breaking the traffic just before 2 p.m. (19:00 GMT) they found he had a warrant for his arrest. When police tried to arrest him, they said the man had returned to the car.
One police officer shot the man, who could not be reached for comment. The man hit several blocks before hitting another vehicle and died at the scene.
Asked if he would be charged in the case, Gannon said it was "too far".
Posts
