She honestly might. If she had known she was pulling out her pistol when she fired at Wright, she could have conceivably argued Wright was resisting arrest, fighting with her fellow officer, potentially grabbing at his belt or going for his own concealed weapon. There's enough erratic movement from Wright in that video that she could make that defense if she had knowingly pulled the pistol.
IIRC, the cop who shot Jacob Blake is literally back on the force now because his actions were both justified and intentional.
But in the video this cop clearly, audibly and repeatedly says "I'm going to taze him" and then says "taser, taser, taser" and after she shoots she says "oh shit" like she realizes she grabbed the wrong thing out of her belt. Shooting Wright may have been justified, but shooting him was not her intent, meaning her accidental actions caused a death. Generically speaking, when someone has an accident that gets someone killed, that's usually called manslaughter (again, speaking generically and not specifically in this exact case).
Now, maybe this could be dismissed as a no-fault accidental death situation but I doubt it and the cop had already been charged with second degree manslaughter. I think the evidence is strong enough to earn a conviction on manslaughter in this case and I'm not really sure Wright's actions here could negate that. It's clear the cop did not premeditate murder or even attempt to cause the kind of harm that would result in murder, so it does seem murder 2 or 3 are not appropriate here.
If I'm totally off base, feel free to correct me. What do you think are appropriate charges, if any, in this case?
She honestly might. If she had known she was pulling out her pistol when she fired at Wright, she could have conceivably argued Wright was resisting arrest, fighting with her fellow officer, potentially grabbing at his belt or going for his own concealed weapon. There's enough erratic movement from Wright in that video that she could make that defense if she had knowingly pulled the pistol.
IIRC, the cop who shot Jacob Blake is literally back on the force now because his actions were both justified and intentional.
But in the video this cop clearly, audibly and repeatedly says "I'm going to taze him" and then says "taser, taser, taser" and after she shoots she says "oh shit" like she realizes she grabbed the wrong thing out of her belt. Shooting Wright may have been justified, but shooting him was not her intent, meaning her accidental actions caused a death. Generically speaking, when someone has an accident that gets someone killed, that's usually called manslaughter (again, speaking generically and not specifically in this exact case).
Now, maybe this could be dismissed as a no-fault accidental death situation but I doubt it and the cop had already been charged with second degree manslaughter. I think the evidence is strong enough to earn a conviction on manslaughter in this case and I'm not really sure Wright's actions here could negate that. It's clear the cop did not premeditate murder or even attempt to cause the kind of harm that would result in murder, so it does seem murder 2 or 3 are not appropriate here.
If I'm totally off base, feel free to correct me. What do you think are appropriate charges, if any, in this case?