How could a gun be mistaken for a taser? There have been at least 16 incidents of 'weapon confusion'

[634-5789]

When Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, police officer Kim Potter allegedly mistook her service weapon for a stun gun and fatally shot an unarmed Black motorist Sunday, it was at least the 16th such “weapons confusion” incident in the United States since 2001.

And the victim, Daunte Wright, was at least the fourth person to have died as a result, according to data compiled by the website FatalEncounters.org and University of Colorado professor Paul Taylor, who tracks such cases.

These types of incidents are rare, experts say, although no government agency tracks the use of Taser-like devices nationwide so it’s impossible to say with certainty how many times it has occurred.

What is certain is that these scenarios are avoidable. When they do happen, it’s typically the result of inadequate or lapsed officer training, according to at least a half dozen weapons and law-enforcement experts interviewed by the USA TODAY Network.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2021/04/13/taser-confusion-errors-like-daunte-wright-shooting-rare-but-avoidable/7210538002/

[MineralMan]

1. Yes, it has happened before.

However, that does not excuse it in any case.

Cops are trained, of course, and the firearm and taser are holstered opposite sides of the body. Training, however, is often forgotten in the heat of the moment, because it is not repeated again and again over time. Often the training takes place years before and is not repeated or rehearsed on a regular basis.

Still, the differences in weight and appearance between a service pistol and a taser should be an immediate indicator of which one is in your hand.

Bottom line for me is that what was going on wasn't really a cause for use of either weapon, really, nor was the offence, if any existed, reason for use of force in the first place.

It's very possible that that officer accidentally pulled the wrong weapon, but that is not any justification for what happened nor for the death of the victim.

When a mistake like that ends in the death of a subject, negligent homicide is the charge to be brought. Homicide happened in this case, due to negligence, clearly.

[Raven123]

2. They also make tasers in various colors. A visual cue to differentiate from guns

[Amishman]

3. Only works if they look down, my guess is their eyes don't leave their subject

I've said this in a few other threads, but the taser should not have a pistol grip and trigger. Make it feel completely different in their hand.

[Solomon]

7. Aw, look at the video. The cop was holding

her gun right in front of her face the whole time. You couldn't look at tge victim and not see the gun.

My problem is cops immediately pull out their gun on black people. Before even talking they are aiming the gun. They mean to draw their guns so how do you then claim you thought it was a taser?

Look at George Floyd. The first cop drew his gun before approaching or talking to Floyd. Do you think he would be able to get away with saying "taser taser" and then shooting him?

Cops don't jump out of their cars pointing tasers at black people. But they have a bad habit of pulling their guns.

[YMB]

11. Based on the body cam footage

and positioning, it wasnt in front of her face. Body cameras are on either an officers chest or upper stomach areas. It was below her head and near her body(barely out of sight) up till the last second when she actually brought it into clear view, aimed it and pulled the trigger. Its common to have training where you dont take your eyes off the target while manipulating your gear so you could definitely make a case that she didnt notice it was her firearm in the heat of the moment.

Not defending what she did because she messed up royally and should face jail time, but theres enough evidence to point to that you can say she was grossly incompetent and made an actual mistake and didnt intend to kill him. One round fired, the surprise from all three officers (and in her voice), the admit to the mistake right then and there, the reports of cpr afterwards trying to save him ect.

[csziggy]

4. She was training another officer that day

"On Sunday, Potter was working as a field training officer, helping a new officer learn the job, when they attempted to arrest Wright."
https://www.startribune.com/washington-county-attorney-says-charges-likely-wednesday-in-wright-shooting/600045468/

With training like that, no wonder this kind of thing happens.

[Arazi]

6. 16 episodes in 20 years. Out of how many millions (billions?!) of arrests? 🙄

I'm sorry, I'll never believe this wasn't a racist cop doing the racist cop thing. There's FAR more evidence of that than "weapons confusion", especially now we know there's only been 16 episodes in 20 fucking years

[CrackityJones75]

8. Take both away from most cops

Take both away from most cops, especially traffic cops that should only be working traffic violations.

[Straw Man]

9. A few things to consider.

Visual clues are meaningless, even if the object is right in front of your eyes. If you're not looking at it, you won't see it. In an encounter like this, you're going to be fixated on the person who you're confronting.

It doesn't matter what side the taser is carried on; once it is drawn, it will be transferred to the dominant hand. She had the notion to use the taser, and she had something in her hand. In the heat of the moment, she mistakenly assumed that the object in her hand was her taser, simply because that was the action that her mind had settled upon.

This is criminally negligent homicide. It is not premeditated murder. The notion that she had the desire to kill this man and had the presence of mind to shout "Taser! Taser! Taser!" to cover herself is farfetched, to say the least.

Police are much too quick to draw their guns and are insufficiently trained on use of tasers. I wonder if they train to transition from gun to taser. If they are, she must have skipped that part of the training.

I personally feel that changes in the configuration of the taser might be helpful -- for example, they could be activated by a thumb button rather than an pistol-like trigger. If she had been mashing her thumb against the back or her pistol's slide instead of pulling its trigger with her finger, Daunte Wright would still be alive.

[Disaffected]

10. Well put.

"Visual clues are meaningless, even if the object is right in front of your eyes. If you're not looking at it, you won't see it. In an encounter like this, you're going to be fixated on the person who you're confronting."

For a good example, look up the psych experiment where a group of people standing in a circle are tossing a beach ball back and forth. Their task is also to count the number of times the ball changes hands. In the middle of this, a guy dressed in a gorilla suit runs into the centre of the circle, stays a few seconds, and runs out.

After the ball throwing ends, the participants are asked how many times the ball was tossed but also if they saw anything else happening. Not a one saw the gorilla guy. And, they could not believe that had actually happened, even after being shown a video of the experiment.

This experiment was repeated a number of times with more or less the same result. It also goes to show how just how unreliable eye witness testimony can be under some circumstances.