this type of accident happens around once a year.
A 2012 article published in the monthly law journal of Americans for Effective Law
Enforcement documented nine cases in which officers shot suspects with handguns
when they said they meant to fire stun guns dating back to 2001.
Bill Lewinski, an expert on police psychology and founder of the Force Science Institute
in Mankato, Minnesota, has used the phrase “slip and capture" errors to describe the
phenomenon. Lewinski, who has testified on behalf of police, has said officers
sometimes perform the direct opposite of their intended actions under stress — their
actions “slip” and are “captured” by a stronger response. He notes that officers train far
more often on drawing and firing their handguns than they do on their stun guns.
Geoffrey Alpert, a criminology professor at the University of South Carolina
and an expert on police use of force. Alpert said a major factor in why
officers mistakenly draw their firearm is that stun guns typically look and feel
like a firearm. St. Paul, Minnesota, Mayor Melvin Carter brought up the same
point during a news conference Monday.
“Why do we even have Tasers that operate and function and feel and deploy
exactly like a firearm?” Carter asked. “Why can’t we have Tasers that look
and feel different? That you could never mistake for deploying a firearm so
that we can ensure that mistake that has happened before can never happen
again?”
In 2019, a suburban St. Louis police officer, Julia Crews, said she meant to
use her stun gun but mistakenly grabbed her service revolver and shot a
suspected shoplifter, Ashley Hall, who suffered serious injuries. Crews
resigned and has pleaded not guilty to a pending charge of second-degree
assault. The city of Ladue admitted no wrongdoing as part of a $2 million
settlement with Hall.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/...taser-77031088
nothing to do with race so rioters and looters can stand down