ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — News 13 spoke with three people Tuesday about the death of Daunte Wright in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center. Wright was killed after 20-year veteran officer Kim Potter accidentally fired her gun rather than her Taser.
“Obviously, from her yelling Taser, she warned Mr. Wright that she would tase him,” retired Hendersonville Police Chief Donnie Parks said. "Then, of course, she fired one round.”
The shot killed Wright, who was reportedly trying to drive away when officers engaged in a scuffle to place him under arrest. Reports said police stopped Wright for an expired license plate tag, then found he had an outstanding misdemeanor warrant and moved to arrest him.
“I knew when she drew her firearm it was in her dominant hand,” said Parks, who said an officer’s gun is supposed to be positioned on the dominant or stronger side of an officer’s body, for example on the right side if an officer is right-handed.
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The Taser, Parks said, is supposed to be holstered on the opposite side of the officer’s belt that’s filled with accessories, including ammunition.
Parks said physical and mental training is critical to avoid confusion in split-second life and death scenarios such as the case involving Wright.
“For me, personally, being a person of color, a man of color, who runs a program dealing with young men of color, it’s frustrating, because we continue to have these conversations over and over again,” said Keynon Lake, who runs Black male youth mentoring nonprofit My Daddy Taught Me That in Asheville.
Wright reportedly called his mother and told her police had stopped him because of an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror.
“Police profiling is real,” Lake said.
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“There needs to be a complete evaluation of the use of Tasers in particular,” said Brian Higgins, a longtime public safety consultant at New York City’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “If nothing else, the design of the Taser.”
Higgins was also chief of police for Bergen County in New Jersey, as well has holding numerous other positions in law enforcement over his career.
Higgins pointed out Tasers are much lighter than guns, but he still said changes should be made.
“Maybe we put it in a different part of the officer’s uniform,” Higgins said.
Neither Higgins nor Parks think race played a role in the officer’s mistake. But Higgins said it doesn’t much matter, because the outcome will continue to build mistrust of the Black community against police nationwide.
“Again, we have another person of color who is dead," Higgins said.
Higgins said it increases tensions and contributes to the urge to flee officers when stopped.
“Now, what we’re doing is forcing officers to make split-second decisions. And, in this case, the decision by the officer was a bad one," Higgins said.
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