Former Officer Kim Potter is Obviously Lying

This will be a brief one, because it is fairly simple. As you probably know from the news, Officer Kimberly Potter, a 26 year veteran of the Brooklyn Center, Minnesota police department shot Daunte Wright during a traffic stop. She is now under arrest for 2^nd degree murder. She claimed that she had mistaken her pistol for her Taser, and hadn’t meant to shoot Mr. Wright. Just before shooting him she yelled “Taser!” three times, and afterward she said “Holy shit, I shot him!”

Here is a photo of Officer Potter in uniform.

 

Notice that her service pistol is on her right. She drew her pistol right handed during the incident. Now notice the yellow handle of her Taser at the bottom of the photo. It is on her left side, with the butt of the Taser facing back. This makes sense for a left handed draw. This in turn makes sense because it would allow her to draw her Taser without encumbering her right hand, in case she wanted to draw her service pistol.

In order to draw her Taser right handed, she would have to reach all the way across her torso to her left side. Then she would have to pull the retention strap on the Taser with her fingertips. Then she would have to turn her right hand upside down, thumb down, palm outward. Then she would have to bend her wrist at an angle to match the horizontal butt of the Taser. Then she would have to draw the Taser straight up about five inches and bring it across her torso. Try that series of motions right now.

To draw her pistol she would have to reach down to her right hip, push out on the retention strap with her thumb, and draw like a cowboy. Try that motion right now.

Now try to imagine any cop, much less a 26 year veteran, mixing up those two series of actions. It is absurd.

Besides this, her Taser is bright yellow plastic and, according to the manufacturer, weighs about 10 ounces. A semi-auto pistol of the type police generally use is going to weigh over 32 ounces and is blued steel. That’s hard enough to mistake, even under stress, but the bizarre cross draw required to deploy the Taser is enough.

So why did she say what she said? Most likely because she knew her and her partners’ body cameras were on. She was playing to the inevitable future viewers of that video. Her cry of “Taser!” isn’t an indication of a mix-up. It is proof of intent.