Police say officer killed young black man by mistake 1:55
(CNN) -
Body camera video of a suburban Minneapolis police officer fatally shooting Daunte Wright in a car during a widely publicized traffic stop is likely to play a pivotal role in the trial that will be celebrated on Tuesday for his role in the death of the young man.
The shooting appears to be the result of Agent Kimberly Potter, 49, mistaking her weapon for a stun gun or "Taser" (brand of stun gun), and it occurred in Brooklyn Center, a few miles from Minneapolis, during the Derek Chauvin's trial for the murder of George Floyd.
The city police chief shared a video less than 24 hours after the shooting, in the interest of transparency.
In the body camera footage, Potter is heard repeatedly yelling "taser" before shooting 20-year-old Daunte Wright.
After firing his pistol, he yells, "Oh my God! I just shot him."
Video footage also played a crucial role in recent high-profile homicide cases, resulting in a guilty verdict against Chauvin, not guilty verdicts against Kyle Rittenhouse for shooting three people during last year's riots, and verdicts guilty in the case of three men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia.
The jury ruled that the three defendants are guilty of the death of Ahmaud Arbery
Potter was originally charged with second-degree murder in April and prosecutors added a first-degree murder charge in early September.
She faces at least a decade in prison if convicted.
Jury selection began Tuesday at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, with initial arguments expected Dec. 8.
At a hearing last month, Potter's attorneys said they could claim that the use of his gun was an innocent mistake, an accident, and that the use of the stun gun was reasonable.
Although mistaking a firearm for a stun gun is unusual, and central to the murder charges against Potter, other aspects of the interaction are likely to come under scrutiny during the trial.
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The training and use of force experts who reviewed the video cautioned against drawing too broad a conclusion based solely on the video: one of them said that viewing an incident through that lens is like "looking through a straw".
But the 90 seconds the city posted was a red flag, not just because of the confusion over the weapon but how the interaction unfolded before Potter drew his gun on Daunte Wright, who was the subject of an arrest warrant.
The video suggests deficiencies in the training requirements and professional standards of the department's agents, showing a spate of minor errors that culminated in Potter shooting Wright.
"It was catastrophic in a couple of ways," said Gerald Takano, an expert on use of force and training.
"The confusion of arms is a single catastrophic incident. The accumulation of small errors is catastrophic in its entirety. They both occurred in the same case."
The state agency investigating the case has not released any information about its criminal investigation.
A spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety did not respond to a request for comment.
When the police chief released the video, he said the state agency did not approve of the post.
The agent's attorneys declined to comment for this story.
City officials have not released any information about the internal investigation, which would not only examine the misuse of the stun gun, but also any other rule violations discovered during the investigation.
Brooklyn Center officials have not released any video from the body cameras or the dashboards that could offer other insights from the interaction that would help investigators determine whether using a stun gun was within department policy. of cop.
It is unclear if there are other body camera recordings.
City officials declined to comment.
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What we know about the traffic stop
Daunte Wright was driving on a Sunday afternoon in April when police pulled him over for an expired tag, police said.
During the stop, the officers learned that he had an outstanding arrest warrant and tried to arrest him.
The video shows a male officer, whose name has not been released, approaching a car in front of Potter, and a second officer approaching the car from the passenger side.
Potter says "get out," and the male agent in front asks Wright to get out of the car.
According to experts, the officers approached the car in the usual way at traffic stops.
One of the agents contacts the driver and is supposed to direct the interaction, while another, located on the passenger side, watches the other occupants and the surroundings.
Potter is behind the lead agent, on the driver's side.
Potter seems to say "get out", and another agent says "do me a favor" and "get out of the car."
The sound of passing traffic and the poor playback quality of the broadcast video make it difficult to hear other parts of the conversation between Wright and the agent.
Disturbing footage shows how a police officer shot Daunte Wright with her firearm even though the protocol is to use a
taser
One of the agents says that Wright is under arrest, Potter says "you have a warrant" and one of the agents repeats that Wright has a warrant.
It is at this point that the problems begin, as the contact agent is unable to quickly handcuff Wright.
The agent pulled Daunte Wright out of the car, "to comply. He put his hands on his back, but (the agent) did not fully position the suspect before going through the handcuff applications, the handcuff mechanics," he said. Takano.
"To unsheathe them and put them on, how to take them out, how to grasp them, what order ... it should only take about two seconds from when the hand is touched for the first time until the first handcuff is put on and the second is put on."
Although the agent had Wright standing, the movement to handcuff him was not quick.
According to experts, the usual practice is to place someone in an arrest position, handcuff them, and then search them for weapons.
"(The agent) didn't do that, like he has his hands behind his back, almost looking around his waist," Takano said.
"That is not the best practice."
Jon Blum, an expert on the use of force, said the officer appeared to be unsure of himself.
Agents are taught that when they put their hands on someone they should be firm, because that communicates the seriousness of the interaction.
"Hands behind your back, don't move. Handcuffs in hand, bang, bang and that's it," he said.
"Obviously he didn't have a good grip, (Wright) broke away pretty quickly ... (the agent) didn't seem to have control of what was going on, he lacked confidence and he didn't do it the way he should. That doesn't excuse him (to Wright But I could have done better, absolutely. "
Once Wright began to struggle, without handcuffs, Potter moved closer.
Potter's hands are empty the first time they appear in the video, but after approaching Wright, a hand emerges with a piece of paper.
"Once (Daunte Wright) stiffens up and shows that he's not satisfied and there's another officer there, that person's job is to come in immediately. Two officers with their hands on the person. He didn't grab it, I don't understand why not. he grabbed it, "Takano said.
"It's puzzling to me."
"She is holding the piece of paper while (Wright) is fighting, she is not doing much while the other agent is trying to control Mr. Wright while he is trying to get back in the car," Takano said.
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The importance of quickly handcuffing someone is that decision-making becomes more difficult under threat than when there is little or no threat, experts said. Quickly guarding someone under arrest reduces the risk of a situation involving the officer using force.
"As long as force is used, the sooner you can stop it, (there is) less chance that everyone will be harmed. Not even lethal force, taser, or pepper spray or spring into action ... the longer it takes. in stopping, the worse it can be for everyone, the likelihood of injury increases, "Blum said.
"Fatigue kicks in, there are all these other things. If you have a hand-to-hand fight with someone on the side of the road, there are chances that they will hit the road, that's more dangerous. There are all the different environmental parameters. why you should stop it as soon as possible. "
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Daunte Wright's "resistance level" was unclear
The use of stun guns varies by jurisdiction, but from the single video it is not clear that Daunte Wright's resistance would have been an offense that would justify the use of a stun gun to help take him into custody, Takano said.
Brooklyn Center has not released any other video of the incident, and it is unclear what third-party video may have been located by investigators from the state investigating agency.
The use of force is judged according to a rule outlined in a Supreme Court ruling that outlines the factors to consider whether force is reasonable: the nature of the offense, the threat to officers or others, and whether someone resists or flees.
"They are factors that determine the totality, and the totality to determine reasonableness," Takano said.
The video "doesn't show what the resistance level is," Takano said.
"There are no indicators: she was trying to hit, assault, kick, or she was trying to escape, to get into her car and escape. But there is so much camera clutter and repositioning of her around the other officers that we don't get a clear picture of what's happening".
Aggressive behavior, such as kicking into the car, would have served to explain the move of choosing to use a stun gun, he said.
"If the person does not obey and walks away, they are wanted for a minor offense, probably the stun gun does not justify the use of force to begin with," Takano said.
“If he was just passively resisting, pulling away, that's defensive.
Offensive would be to try to attack, that is where the option of using a 'taser' begins to be justified ”.
What is a "taser"?
What could happen to your body if you receive a shock from this type of weapon?
There is some similarity between 'taser' pistols and firearms: both have a pistol grip, but the weight, color and way of handling the weapon should be noticeable when drawing the weapon. There is also no single rule on how they should be carried. Some departments prohibit officers from carrying it on the same side as the pistol, but allow the hand holding it to draw it from the other side of the body. Others require that it be carried on the side of the weak hand, to limit the possibility of confusion.
Electric guns can also be used in different ways.
From a distance of about 6 meters, you can shoot two tips that spread out over the distance before attaching to the body, ideally on the chest and below the waist.
Up close, since Potter was with Daunte Wright, the "drive stun" function can be used to directly apply electricity.
Depending on the Taser model, its user would have to remove a cartridge before using the "
drive stun
" function.
This is an important move that, if Potter intended to stun Daunte Wright, he should have made, and in doing so should have realized that he had a gun in his hand.
"That gun is a Glock, which has no external security and cannot be tampered with, whereas a Taser, whatever it is, has some external security that you have to tamper with," said Sean Hendrickson, who teaches the use of force in Washington.
"In cognitive overload, the idea is to resort to training. The first system that directs behavior in the brain is the fight / flight system, that's where you are so immersed in that point, that you pull out a weapon and think it is a taser gun, "he said.
"That's the only way I can understand what I saw."
Hendrickson said the situation, from the only video released, did not appear to "develop at a rate that could amount to cognitive overload like that."
Even if Potter had pulled out the stun gun, Hendrickson said he wasn't sure what the purpose of using the gun would have been.
"If it works, your body locks up, I don't know how that helps," Hendrickson said.
"If you look at the video and how close it is, it's right inside the open door, on the edge, and those probes won't extend far enough to achieve neuromuscular incapacitation and that's the goal. If you do, it will be locked in. That seat, it's difficult to manipulate. It's confusing, from a tactical point of view, what the ultimate goal of using the stun gun was. "
The effect of tasers on the human body 1:06
The impact of training and politics
"At the end of the day, gun confusion is just a symptom, and there are a lot of symptoms here," Takano said.
"That's just what we can see with the procedures. We haven't even talked about the decision-making training."
There is no uniform formation at all in the forces of order.
There are best practices, identified by experts, training teams or advocacy groups.
Each state establishes a mandatory minimum curriculum that is taught to officers during their initial training, but states vary widely in how to ensure compliance.
There are more variations once the agents leave the academy.
"The best states can mandate 40 hours of training per year in different subject areas," explains Takano.
"Departments complain that it is too much. That's what happens in some of the best states. Others have less."
Training is done in blocks of hours.
The annual qualification for the use of weapons, which means simply being qualified, not being competent, can take hours.
"That is not combat, that is not making decisions. That is, you can point your gun the right way, shoot a paper target, not shoot yourself in the foot, and hit the paper a number of times out of 100."
Usually a day, or half a day, is devoted to legal updates.
Then there's the "flavor of the year," which can be whatever is in the news or the result of some controversy.
There are other topics that usually require some updating: minors, diversity, mental illness, people in crisis, career survival, professional ethics.
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"That has nothing to do with the skills required, the activities known as detaining people, dealing with disobedience, the types of high priority calls ... For any agency doing internships, it is always going to significantly increase the time of training, "Takano said.
Many cities have less than budgeted staffing;
The idea of adding another 40 hours of training for each agent may seem like a luxury, especially to retrain basic and fundamental skills learned at the academy.
But agents around the world have the same general powers, and the risk of poor training or not prioritizing the basics could be just as catastrophic in a small department as in a large one, Blum said.
"I don't care if it's the Los Angeles police, the New York police, or a police department with six officers. You have to have officers with critical decision-making skills," Blum said.
"They have powers of authority, powers of arrest, very few people have this. They have to have that (capacity). I don't care where they work."
- Brad Parks contributed to this report.
Daunte wright