Cops are almost always taught to have the gun on the side of your dominant hand and the taser on the opposite side. This scenario is stressed constantly for this reason. If you are going to use the taser it should be in your muscle memory that the taser is on your opposite side. Seems like a second degree manslaughter case (which specifically covers culpable negligence). In the Oscar Grant case, there were all kinds of questions whether the officer intentionally claimed to have made a mistake in order to get a lower charge. I think in this case, it's pretty clear that a mistake was made (as tragic as it was). There are also laws around the reckless use of firearms that carry their own sentences.
Yup and you're taught to always have the gun on your dominant side. I don't know how a cop makes this mistake. There's so much training on this specific item.
According to the chief they are trained to holster the gun on their dominant side. For those who have held a taser, is it that difficult you pulled out a gun instead?
“They choke, sometimes. They have a quarter of a second - a quarter of a second to make a decision - and sometimes they make the wrong decision. Just like in a golf tournament. They miss a 3-foot putt. Sometimes you have a cop or a police person who is a good - a good police person, right? Good. But they choke.”
Police tasers are designed to be holstered and drawn like guns so I could totally see how someone could mix them up (especially when you are reacting in miliseconds). It's why your taser is supposed to be holstered on the other side of your body. They should never be close enough to where you could accidentally draw the wrong one.
https://cbsloc.al/3d9AqW4 This video is a bit clearer. Man, the look on the officer's face after she says she just shot him.
Looking at that video she has her firearm drawn already for about 6 seconds before she fires. One question in addition to why she drew her firearm besides the taser is didn't she notice in that time it was the wrong weapon? Tasers are bright yellow for a good reason.
Not just appearance but weight. I'm assuming a standard taser weighs probably half a pound. A standard 9mm handgun which I'm assuming is her service weapon's caliber weighs about 2 pounds with a full magazine. So that weight should definitely be very obvious.
Ugh. I'm ignorant of officer training, and I know they face a lot of difficult situations, but would it be terrible to have their safety on their sidearm when approaching a car and when they have numbers on their side? You couldn't make a taser mistake with a pistol with its safety on. Double ugh at this event. Wonder if the kid was not of sound mind or just had a terrible fight or flight response.
I'm not a gun guy but I've heard that Glocks don't have separate safeties but the safety is in the trigger mechanism.
Police don't train enough. They need more force on force training. You can't expect special forces level results with summer camp level training.
So what happens if he didn’t get shot or tasered ? They would have had a car chase that would ended with him being arrested with more charges or there would be a car accident that would be either fatal or not fatal . In the end he would have been still arrested so driving away from the cops only works in the movies or video games
If they have his license plate and knew his identity, other countries wouldn't even bother with a chase unless it's some type of serial killer. Something that America's law enforcement doesn't understand or don't care about because maybe many of them suffer from delusions of grandeur and enjoy the chase. I think a large issue with Americans law enforcement is the plethora of buddy cop movies and hollywood for the past half decade romanticizing law enforcement where entire generations of law enforcement joined because of the romanticism and the action hero portrayal the media portrayed.
