While not uncommon, cases of police officers accidentally firing a gun while trying to draw their Tasers, as happened in a Minneapolis suburb on Sunday when an officer shot dead Daunte Wright, are also not entirely unusual.
In 2018, a novice police officer mistakenly shot a man who was fighting with a fellow officer. In 2019, a Pennsylvania police officer shouted ‘Taser!’ Shouted. before shooting an unarmed man in the upper body. And in 2015, a former deputy attorney general in Oklahoma killed an unarmed man when he accidentally grabbed his gun.
Ed Obayashi, an expert in California on the use of force by law enforcement, said that with appropriate training, it would be difficult for officers to confuse a gun with a Taser. “But unfortunately this is happening – this is not the first time and it will not be the last time,” he said, referring to the fatal shooting of Mr. Wright.
In a 2012 article published in the legal journal Americans for Effective Law Enforcement, Capt. Greg Meyer, a retired Los Angeles Police Academy instructor, documented nine similar cases between 2001 and 2009.
One of the most notorious cases occurred in 2009 in Oakland, California, when a white Bay Area transit officer shot and killed a Black man on New Year’s Day. The man, Oscar Grant III, was unarmed and was lying with his face down when the officer shot him. The officer was acquitted on charges of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, but was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served 11 months in prison.
Scott A. DeFoe, a retired sergeant at the Los Angeles Police Department, said most police departments require officers to carry their Taser on their non-dominant side, to prevent the officer from confusing it with their gun. Tasers are also often marked with bright colors to distinguish them from pistols, and the handles usually differ from those of firearms.
“If you practice enough, you will know,” he said.
In most cases, Deputy Obayashi said, the confusion occurs when officers carry both weapons on the same side of their body, or hold their stun guns on the opposite side of their body, making it easier for them to hold a dominant hand and cross draw without deliberation.
In six of the nine cases from the 2012 article, including the shooting in Oakland, officers carried both weapons on the same “strong hand” side of their bodies.
In several cases, the officers did not serve much imprisonment. In the Pennsylvania case, for example, the district attorney said the officer violated a policy that required officers to carry their Taser on the other side of their firearm. Nevertheless, he said the officer “does not possess the criminal state necessary to be guilty of a crime under state law.”