Daunte Wright shooting Brooklyn MN

[RevolverRob]

Red Sox at Twins MLB game "postponed" today for this. The fans were in the stands, the teams were in the dugouts, and the pitchers throwing warmup when the game was called. I had NESN on when the game was called; it took everyone by surprise.

May postpone the basketball game tonight. ESPN is reporting that apparently it's Minneapolis politicians and businesses that are concerned with the potential for violence. I think their thoughts regarding the baseball game was, "Let's get everyone home, before they can't get home."

Given the situations of the last year, I don't blame them.

I watched the video and then I watched it five more times. There's really nothing to say other than, "how many zeroes should we put on the check?"

I'm glad you did. I couldn't get through it more than once. Concur, start adding zeroes to the check and get this settled.

[BehindBlueI's]

WOW is right. I’ll certainly be interested in the Officers perspective when it comes out.

I’d be glad if anyone could provide info on how a Taser is typically (or, specifically in this case) is carried? I mean, how do you mean to pull a Taser but pull your service weapon instead? I thought they (Tasers) were holstered on the weak side, but I would like to know more.

Varies, but best practice is at Coyotesfan97 describes it:

After an non fatal incident many years ago my agency went to mandated support side carry of the Taser. I carried my Taser support side cavalry style with the butt forward. I used my left hand to draw but I could still use my right hand if needed. It made drawing the Taser completely different but automatic after training it.

I *think* we were mandated to have it on the opposite side of the body from the duty gun from the first day we were authorized them, but I wouldn't swear to it. I know I had my set up cavalry draw at first then went to a pure left handed draw. I draw left handed then transition to the right hand.

[Lester Polfus]

I think what bothers me about this is that there have been multiple other cases of officers confusing a handgun with a Taser, with results like this.

Sometimes unforeseen stuff happens. Other times, it's happened before and nobody took heed and changed stuff so it didn't happen to them.

Of course I have the most sympathy for the family of the guy who died, but I also feel really bad for that officer.

[0ddl0t]

This has happened before.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Oscar_Grant

More recently a 73 year old millionaire reserve deputy:
https://ktul.com/news/local/former-r...the-first-time

[DDTSGM]

WOW is right. I’ll certainly be interested in the Officers perspective when it comes out.

I mean, how do you mean to pull a Taser but pull your service weapon instead?

Normally officers have comparatively little experience drawing a TASER, and lots of experience drawing a firearm. This creates the perfect opportunity for a Slip and Capture Error.

Slip and Capture Errors were extensively covered by expert witnesses in the trial of Officer Johannes Mehserle for shooting Oscar Grant on the platform of the Oakland BART station.

Slip and Capture Errors are mistakes made when the person thinks they are doing one thing, but you are actually doing another thing. The result is often directly oposite of what you intended.

“Your intended behavior ‘slips off’ the path you wanted it to go because it is ‘captured’ by a stronger response and sent in a different direction.” (Dr. Bill Lewinski, Force Science News #154)

This snippet from an article by retired Captain Greg Meyers, who was one of the expert witnesses on the case gives some insight as to what can cause mistakes in weapon choice:

Mehserle loudly announced to the other officer, "Tony, get back, I'm going to tase him. I'm going to tase him." Multiple witnesses (including at least one of Oscar Grant's nearby handcuffed buddies) heard Mehserle's "I'm going to tase him" announcement, and so testified.

At the time, BART did not issue TASERs and holsters individually to officers. They are rotated, shift to shift. Sometimes you get one, sometimes you don't. When you get one, there are three different holster configurations at BART. Weak-side/weak-hand; strong-side/weak-hand crossdraw; and (the one Mehserle happened to have that particular night) strong-hand/cross-draw. They also informally allowed weak-side drop holsters, although that was not written in their policy.

Mehserle's (strong) right hand moved to his right side (instead of to his left-front, where his TASER was located in a cross-draw holster), and he partially gripped his handgun with his fingers. His right thumb moved back and forth in the air, in and out toward his own ribcage, inches above where the handgun holster safety was, consistent with the motion needed to undo the TASER holster safety strap if a TASER holster were there (which it was not); and totally inconsistent with undoing the Level-3 handgun holster — these motions are clearly seen on video.

For about four seconds, Mehserle unsuccessfully tugged at his handgun, then it came out. Dr. Lewinski testified that Mehserle subconsciously performed an “automatic program” (one that he was very practiced at) when his decision-making degraded under stress. We know from research that under stress, performance is negatively affected, and we react with movements that are most familiar to us.

Mehserle raised himself up to a level consistent with firing a TASER to achieve a minimally good dart spread. (Weeks earlier he had learned that two feet of distance gets you a four-inch dart spread, which is the minimum spread needed to achieve NMI.) Mehserle aimed at Grant's back and fired ONCE (i.e., not the two or three times that officers are trained to shoot a handgun in rapid succession when facing an immediate deadly force threat.)

Witnesses stated (and multiple videos confirmed) that a moment after the shot, Mehserle looked stunned, in shock; he immediately returned his handgun to its holster, contrary to training to scan and assess when you shoot somebody; then he immediately placed his hands on his forehead, exhibited a bewildered look on his face and uttered panicked expletives.

Cases Meyers provided nine examples of situations where officers had used a firearm while intending to use a TASER. Six of the cases were strong hand draw of the TASER, three of the cases were strong hand cross draw. Here are several of the examples :

March 2001 – Sacramento CA - Officer intends to fire a TASER at a resisting handcuffed suspect in backseat of police car. He instead draws and fires his handgun, shooting the suspect.

– nonfatal
– M26
– strong-side leg holster
– strong-hand draw

October 2002 – Madera CA - Officer intends to fire a TASER at a resisting handcuffed suspect in the back seat who was attempting to kick out the window of the police car. She instead draws and fires her handgun, shooting the suspect.

– Fatal
– Strong-side leg holster
– M26
– strong-hand draw

October 2003 – Somerset City MD - Deputy intends to fire a TASER at a fleeing warrant suspect. He instead draws and fires his handgun and shoots the suspect.

– Nonfatal
– M26
– strong-side leg holster
– strong-hand draw

May 2004 – Mesa AZ - Officer intends to fire a TASER at a resisting suspect. He instead draws and fires his handgun, shooting the suspect.

– nonfatal
– M26
– strong-hand cross-draw

September 2005 – Victoria BC - Constable intends to fire a TASER at a resisting suspect. He instead draws and fires his handgun, shooting the suspect.

– Nonfatal
– X26
– strong-side cargo pocket
– strong-hand draw

June 2006 – Kitsap County WA - Deputy intends to fire a TASER at a suspect. She instead draws and fires her handgun, shooting the suspect.

– Nonfatal
– M26
– strong-side holster
– strong-hand draw

April 2008 – Nicholasville KY - Officer intends to fire a TASER at a suspect. He instead draws and fires his handgun, shooting the suspect.

– Nonfatal
– X26
– strong-hand cross-draw

In all the cases Meyers listed, the officer was either using a strong hand draw or a strong hand cross-draw. One train of though sought to reduce the likelihood of slip and capture by advocating TASER carry on support-side oriented for a support-hand draw.

[fixer]

I think she just holstered quickly. Sometimes seniority doesn’t mean a lot of patrol time. A lot of patrol time doesn’t necessarily translate into good decision making under stress. There’s a saying about having years of experience but repeating it one year at a time. Sometimes you get senior Officers who have spent most of their time in Detective or Admin slots who get returned to to patrol. We had “FTO” program for this where we’d retrain guys who hadn’t been on the road for a long time.

Thanks . I see this in my profession too.

[Coyotesfan97]

Varies, but best practice is at Coyotesfan97 describes it. I *think* we were mandated to have it on the opposite side of the body from the duty gun from the first day we were authorized them, but I wouldn't swear to it. I know I had my set up cavalry draw at first then went to a pure left handed draw. I draw left handed then transition to the right hand.

When we first got M26s they were issued with nylon thigh holsters and guys would carry them under their duty gun holsters. I don’t remember any training from Taser or the Dept about it. That changed and we went to mandatory support side. The only change “recently” was you could carry on your outer carrier.

I looked at doing the pure left draw and the cavalry style worked better. I did the same thing you mentioned by drawing lefty and transitioning to my right hand.

[randyho]

If I capitalize one, I capitalize others.

CAPITALIST!

[LittleLebowski]

I think what bothers me about this is that there have been multiple other cases of officers confusing a handgun with a Taser, with results like this.

Sometimes unforeseen stuff happens. Other times, it's happened before and nobody took heed and changed stuff so it didn't happen to them.

Of course I have the most sympathy for the family of the guy who died, but I also feel really bad for that officer.

Agreed and well said. What a shit sandwich and now the rioters and politicians are going to make other people’s lives hell because of this.

[LittleLebowski]

It’s fairly mystifying why he wanted to run when pulled over for expired tags.