Officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright intended to use Taser, police chief says

The fatal officer-involved shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright appears to have been an accident, the Brooklyn Center Police Department says.

Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said in a Monday news conference that the officer who shot and killed Wright, a Black man, during a traffic stop in Minnesota on Sunday apparently meant to use their Taser but mistakenly fired a bullet, The New York Times reports.

"It is my belief that the officer had the intention to deploy their Taser, but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet," Gannon said. "This appears to me, from what I viewed, and the officer's reaction and distress immediately after, that this was an accidental discharge that resulted in a tragic death of Mr. Wright."

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Police also showed graphic body camera footage from the shooting, in which the officer can be heard shouting "Taser" and, after firing her gun, saying, "Holy s---. I just shot him."

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on Sunday night to protest the shooting, which occurred in a suburb about 10 miles from where George Floyd was killed in 2020. Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott on Monday called for the officer's firing, per the Times, vowing that "we will get to the bottom of this" and "do all that is within our power to make sure that justice is done for Daunte Wright." Brendan Morrow