Minneapolis:
The policewoman who fatally shot a 20-year-old Black man in a Minneapolis suburb accidentally confused her handgun with her taser, police stated Monday, fueling tensions in this city currently on edge since of the George Floyd murder trial.
“The officer drew their handgun instead of their taser,” Brooklyn Center police chief Tim Gannon stated at a press conference about Sunday’s shooting of Daunte Wright.
Gannon stated it was his belief that the officer, who has been placed on leave pending an investigation, “had the intention to deploy their taser but instead shot Mr Wright with a single bullet.”
“This was an accidental discharge that resulted in the tragic death of Mr Wright,” Gannon stated. “There is nothing I can say to lessen the pain of Mr Wright’s family.”
Gannon showed reporters police body camera video of the shooting, which sparked protests overnight in Brooklyn Center and looting of a purchasing mall.
In the video, police officers are noticed pulling Wright out of his vehicle soon after stopping him for a website traffic violation and discovering he had an outstanding warrant.
As Wright scuffles with the officers and gets back into the driver’s seat of the vehicle, a female police officer shouts “I’ll tase you” and then “taser, taser, taser.”
“Holy shit, I shot him,” the officer says as Wright, fatally wounded, drives away.
The protests overnight prompted the defense lawyer for former officer Derek Chauvin, who is facing murder and manslaughter charges for George Floyd’s death, to ask the judge presiding more than the higher-profile case to sequester the jury.
Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s lawyer, stated he was concerned that the protests more than Wright’s death could influence the jurors.
“A verdict in this case is going to have consequences,” Nelson stated. “Will the jury be confident to make a decision regardless of the potential outcome of their decision?”
Prosecutors opposed the request to sequester the jury and so did the judge.
“This is a totally different case,” Judge Peter Cahill stated.
“I’m not going to sequester them. We’ll sequester them on Monday when I anticipate doing closing,” he stated, referring to closing arguments.
“Incredibly saddened”
Chauvin is facing murder and manslaughter charges for his function in Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020, which occurred throughout his arrest for allegedly passing a fake $20 bill.
The 45-year-old Chauvin, who is white, was noticed in a video taken by a bystander kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes as the handcuffed 46-year-old Black man complained repeatedly that he could not breathe.
The video touched off protests against racial injustice and police brutality in the United States and about the planet.
Brooklyn Center, exactly where Wright was shot, is a northwest suburb of Minneapolis situated not far from the heavily guarded Hennepin County Government Center exactly where Chauvin is on trial.
Police fired tear gas and flash bangs to disperse a crowd of hundreds of persons who gathered outdoors a police station in Brooklyn Center soon after Wright was shot.
National Guard troops have been deployed and Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott imposed an overnight curfew.
The Minnesota Twins announced they have been postponing their game on Monday against the Boston Red Sox “out of respect for the tragic events that occurred yesterday in Brooklyn Center.”
In a statement, the Major League Baseball group expressed “sympathies to the family of Daunte Wright.”
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki stated the Biden administration was “incredibly saddened to hear about the loss of life at the hands of law enforcement.”
“It is a reminder of the pain, the anger, the trauma, the exhaustion that many communities across the country have felt,” Psaki stated.
John Harrington, Minnesota’s commissioner of public security, stated about 20 firms have been looted at a regional mall and further National Guard troops would be deployed on Monday.
Tensions in Minneapolis are currently higher more than the Chauvin trial.
Prosecutors are in search of to prove that Floyd’s death was due to asphyxiation by the police officers conducting the arrest and have referred to as a number of health-related specialists to bolster their case.
Chauvin’s lawyer claims Floyd’s death was due to his consumption of the illegal drugs fentanyl and methamphetamine and underlying overall health situations.
Prosecutors referred to as a prominent cardiologist, Jonathan Rich, to testify on Monday.
Rich stated Floyd’s death was triggered by “low oxygen levels” that have been “induced by the prone restraint and positional asphyxiation that he was subjected to.”
“I see no evidence at all that a fentanyl overdose caused Mr Floyd’s death,” Rich stated.
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