Minnesota officer who shot Daunte Wright should have known difference between Taser, gun: Ted Williams

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Officer-involved shooting in Minnesota 'tragedy of epic proportion': Former detective

Ted Williams, a former Washington D.C. police detective, says new police-involved shooting 'is the last thing Minnesota needs' amid murder trial of former officer Derek Chauvin.

The fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center is a "tragedy of epic proportion," former Washington D..C. homicide detective Ted Williams told "America Reports" Monday.

"This is the last thing that Minnesota needs, with the Derek Chauvin trial going on in Minneapolis," said Williams, referring to the former Minneapolis officer charged in connection with the in-custody death of George Floyd last year.

Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon told reporters Monday that Wright, 20, died after a female officer mistook her gun for a Taser. The officer can be heard on body camera footage yelling "Taser!" while engaged in a struggle with Wright. Seconds later, the officer says, "Oh, s---, I just shot him."

"What stood out to me ... this was a senior police officer," Williams said. "This wasn’t a rookie. This is someone who had training. You expect someone with training, even in the cause of a situation like this, to take the appropriate action. She pulled out her Taser, she thought. What she actually pulled out was her gun."

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Williams noted that officers are typically trained annually on using both firearms and stun guns. 

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"They should definitely, even in high stress situations, know the difference," he said.

"This is not the first incident of this nature. There are other incidences ... where an officer believes they were pulling their Taser and in fact they wound up shooting and killing somebody with their gun."