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FOCUS: How Could an Officer Mistake a Gun for a Taser?
Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=59064"><span class="small">Shawn Hubler and Jeremy White, The New York Times</span></a>   
Tuesday, 13 April 2021 11:34

Excerpt: "The chief of police for Brooklyn Center, Minn., where Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by a white officer on Sunday, said on Monday that the shooting was an accident."

Officer Kim Potter in 2007. (photo: Bruce Bisping/Star Tribune/Getty Images)
Officer Kim Potter in 2007. (photo: Bruce Bisping/Star Tribune/Getty Images)

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How Could an Officer Mistake a Gun for a Taser?

By Shawn Hubler and Jeremy White, The New York Times

13 April 21

 

he chief of police for Brooklyn Center, Minn., where Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by a white officer on Sunday, said on Monday that the shooting was an accident. The officer, Kimberly A. Potter, a 26-year veteran of the force, had intended to deploy her Taser, the chief said at a news conference, but had shot her service pistol instead.

Tasers look and feel different from pistols in a number of ways, and most police forces � including Brooklyn Center�s � have standard precautions and protocols in place to prevent the sort of mix-up that can be deadly.


Tasers are often produced in bright colors, or with neon accents, to distinguish them from pistols. The Brooklyn Center Police Department manual cites the Glock 17, 19 and 26 as standard-issue for the department. All three pistol models weigh significantly more than a typical Taser. Glocks also have a trigger safety that can be felt when touching the trigger. Tasers do not. Grips on Tasers are typically different from those of firearms, as well, though they may feel similar because both are usually made of a similar type of polymer.

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+8 # chrisconno 2018-03-07 11:05
And we feel devastated by the Parkland shooting. It is sad that that shooting happened but I always tell people just try to imagine that happening everyday in many communities in our country. I have never understood how Americans can claim the others are the terrorists while not recognizing our terrorizing policies and actions around the world. As to criticisms of Bernie Sanders, I think he has been incredibly busy trying to address our hypocrisies on many fronts.
 
 
+7 # eduardoben 2018-03-07 13:30
Now let's see if the people supporting this resolution will have the courage to do the same against the US orchestrated war in Syria which has cost many more lives and even includes the current occupation of nearly a third of Syrian territory by thousands of US troops and even more of their proxies.
 
 
+5 # janie1893 2018-03-07 15:31
Since the US government has done little to help Puerto Rico, a US territory, why would one expect it to do anything to assist Yemen? We can't hear the screams of injured Yemeni children, and nor do we have to bury them when they die of hunger and disease!