How Could an Officer Mistake a Gun for a Taser?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

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. 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.

“If you train enough, you should be able to tell,” said Scott A. DeFoe, a retired sergeant with the Los Angeles Police Department.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/13/us/daunte-wright-taser-gun.html?searchResultPosition=1

This is the only one I could find that has any resemblance to a firearm. It still has yellow markings.

[Ocelot II]

1. It has happened before.

https://www.twincities.com/2021/04/12/explainer-how-does-an-officer-use-a-gun-instead-of-a-taser/

Reasons cited for such mix-ups include officer training, the way they carry their weapons and the pressure of dangerous, chaotic situations. To avoid confusion, officers typically carry their stun guns on their weak sides — or their nondominant hand — and away from handguns that are carried on the side of their strong arms. This is the case in Brooklyn Center, where Gannon, the police chief, said officers are trained to carry a handgun on their dominant side and their stun gun on their weak side.

Bill Lewinski, an expert on police psychology and founder of the Force Science Institute in Mankato, has used the phrase “slip and capture” errors to describe the phenomenon. Lewinski, who has testified on behalf of police, has said officers sometimes perform the direct opposite of their intended actions under stress — their actions “slip” and are “captured” by a stronger response. He notes that officers train far more often on drawing and firing their handguns than they do on their stun guns.

Other experts express skepticism about the theory.

“There’s no science behind it,” said Geoffrey Alpert, a criminology professor at the University of South Carolina and an expert on police use of force. “It’s a good theory, but we have no idea if it’s accurate.”

Alpert said a major factor in why officers mistakenly draw their firearm is that stun guns typically look and feel like a firearm. St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter brought up the same point during a news conference Monday.

“Why do we even have Tasers that operate and function and feel and deploy exactly like a firearm?” Carter asked. “Why can’t we have Tasers that look and feel different? That you could never mistake for deploying a firearm so that we can ensure that mistake that has happened before can never happen again?”

[KPN]

2. Not defending, but sometimes the mind says do one thing and the body does another. It could be

possible that in the heat of the moment the officer thought "taser", but then used her dominant arm to draw her weapon. Again, not defending. And even if that was the case, at a minimum, it seems manslaughter is an appropriate charge; after all, people are charged with manslaughter as a result of "accidents" all the time. .... One other thing seems certain: training and practice of training are insufficient in our police corps.

[Paladin]

3. Inexcusable error, even for a 6-month rookie.

Much less a 26-year veteran. Heads need to roll as a consequence---followed by a complete rework of departmental training policy.

[Blue_playwright]

4. I might be more generous...

...and inclined to believe it was a tragic error if the cops weren’t shooting unarmed black folks at a rapid rate.

[aquamarina]

5. Shouldn't the question be

why was the cop so quick to reach for any restraining weapon? Cops always seem so quick to reach for a weapon instead of trying to keep things from escalating.

[Marcuse]

6. She aimed for 5 seconds. It wasn't a quick draw and shoot. She had time to know the difference.