BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn (AP) – Police have a second night in the suburb of Minneapolis clashed with protesters, where an officer who authorities believe were planning to fire a Taser., not a gun, a Blackman was fatally shot during a stop.
Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon described the shooting death Sunday of 20-year-old Daunte Wright as an accidental dismissal. ‘The shooting caused protests and unrest in an area that was already underway due to the trial of the first of four police officers charged in George Floyd’s death.
Hundreds of protesters clashed with police in Brooklyn City Center Monday night, hours after the governor announced a twilight-to-day curfew. When the protesters did not disperse, police started firing gas cans and grenades, waving clouds over the crowd and chasing away some protesters. A long line of police in riot gear rhythmically pushing their clubs in front of them is slowly forcing the remaining crowds back.
“Move back!” the police chanted. “Hands in the air! Do not shoot!” Shouted the crowd back.
By late Monday, only a few dozen protesters remained.
Law enforcement agencies have intensified their presence in the Minneapolis area after violence on Sunday night. The number of Minnesota National Guard troops is expected to more than double to more than 1,000 on Monday night.
Authorities released footage of the body earlier Monday showing officers shouting at Wright as police tried to arrest him.
‘I will pursue you! I will pursue you! Taser! Taser! Taser! ”She can be heard saying. She pulled out her weapon after the man broke loose outside the police car and got behind the wheel again.
After firing a single shot from her pistol, the car chases away and the officer is heard saying, ‘Holy (explicit)! I shot him. ”
Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott called the shooting “deeply tragic” and said the officer should be fired.
“We are going to do everything in our power to ensure that justice is done and that our communities are healed,” he said.
Elliott later announced that the city council had voted to give his office ‘command’ over the police department.
It ‘will streamline things and create a chain of command and leadership’, he wrote on Twitter. He also said the city manager has been fired and that the deputy city manager will take over his duties.
The reason for the shooting was not immediately clear, but the city manager controlled the police, according to the city’s charter. The former city manager, Curt Boganey, who spoke to reporters earlier, declined to say whether he believes the officer should be fired and that she will get a proper trial after the shooting.
Brooklyn Center is a modest suburb just north of Minneapolis, and its demographics have changed dramatically in recent years. In 2000, more than 70% of the city was white. Today, the majority of residents are black, Asian or Latino.
Elliott, the city’s first black mayor, immigrated from Liberia as a child. On Monday night, Keith Ellison, the state’s first black attorney general, addressed a group of protesters with him who were not far from the police department – and told the protesters to use their voice but stay safe.
“We’re going to get out of this, we’re going to make sure there’s justice, that there’s officers held accountable,” Elliott told protesters in a video posted by a reporter from KARE television station in Minneapolis.
Ellison reminded the crowd that he was currently leading the prosecution of the first officer charged in Floyd’s death, promising that Wright’s death would not be swept under the rug.
According to authorities, three officers were pulled around a car that had stopped because the registration plates had expired. When another officer tries to handcuff Wright, a second officer tells him that he is being arrested on the basis of a warrant. That’s when the fight started, followed by the shooting. Then the car drives several blocks before hitting another vehicle.
Gannon said he believes the officer intended to use her Taser, but rather fired one bullet at Wright. From “what I saw and the reaction of the officer in distress immediately thereafter, it was an accidental dismissal that led to the tragic death of Mr. Wright.”
Wright died from a gunshot wound to the chest, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said in a statement.
The state Bureau of Criminal Detention, which is investigating the shooting, identified the officer as Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran placed on administrative leave.
Gannon did not want to say whether she would be fired.
“I think we can watch the video and see if she goes back,” the principal said.
Court records show Wright did not appear in court on charges that he fled from officers and had a gun without a permit during a meeting with Minneapolis police in June.
Wright’s mother, Katie Wright, said her son called her when he was pulled over.
During the call she said she was bickering and then someone said “Daunte, do not run” before the call ended. When she called back, her son’s girlfriend replied and said he had been shot.
His brother, Dallas Bryant, said hundreds of people gathered at the candlelight Monday night that Wright sounded scared during the phone call and asked how the officer could mistaken a gun for a Taser.
‘You know the difference between plastic and metal. We all know that, ”he said.
Protesters began to gather shortly after the shooting, with some jumping cars on police. Marchers also stormed the city’s police headquarters, throwing stones and other objects. About 20 businesses were broken into at the city’s Shingle Creek shopping center, authorities said.
The trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis officer charged with Floyd’s death, continues Monday. Floyd, a Black man, died on May 25 after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck. Prosecutors say Floyd was pinned for 9 minutes, 29 seconds. The judge in that case on Monday refused to sequester the jury after a lawyer argued that the panel could be affected by the prospect that could happen as a result of their verdict.
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Associated Press authors Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis, Aaron Morrison in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Jonathan Lemire in Washington contributed to this report.
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Mohamed Ibrahim is a corps member for the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that puts journalists in local newsrooms to report on national issues.