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A police chief in Brooklyn Center outside of Minneapolis released the body camera footage Monday showing the officer-involving shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, categorizing the event as an “accidental discharge.”
Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said he believed the so far unidentified officer intended to reach for a Taser but mistakenly grabbed her service weapon and deployed a single bullet.
Both the chief and Mayor Mike Elliott declined to release the officer’s name at this time but said the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension should be releasing information about all involved parties soon.
At least 500 Minnesota National Guard personnel are activated across the Twin Cities Monday in support of Operation Safety Net during the trial for former Minneapolis office Derek Chauvin – a number that’s expected to increase amid unrest since Wright’s death. The Minneapolis area erupted in looting and riots late Sunday after a female officer fatally shot Wright during a traffic stop just 10 miles from where Chauvin had Floyd pinned to the pavement last May.
In a statement released Sunday, Brooklyn Center Police said that officers had stopped an individual shortly before 2 p.m. After determining the driver had an outstanding warrant, police tried to arrest him. But the driver reentered the vehicle and drove away, police said.
FAST FACTS
- Operation Safety Net was already expected to enter Phase 3 ahead of closing statements and jury deliberation in the Chauvin trial.
- That plan was expedicted by the civil unrest following Daunte Wright’s fatal shooting by police.
An officer fired at the vehicle, striking the driver. Police said the vehicle traveled several blocks before crashing into another vehicle. A female passenger sustained nonlife-threatening injuries.
Gannon also detailed how officers outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department headquarters were pelted with frozen soda cans and cement blocks. One Hennepin County sheriff’s deputy was struck in the head and went to the hospital. The chief said he made the call to cut lights in the building to prevent officers confronted by demonstrators from being backlit and becoming targets.
Tensions are already high in the region as the trial for Chauvin, the former Minneapolis officer charged in Floyd’s death, continues into its third week. Judge Peter Cahill on Monday denied the defense’s motion to sequester the jury amid the civil unrest across Hennepin County following Wright’s death because it’s a…
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