EXPLAINER: How does someone confuse a gun for a Taser?

By SEAN MURPHY
Associated Press

The jury deliberating at Kim Potter’s manslaughter trial in the shooting death of Daunte Wright asked a judge whether the officer’s handgun could be freed from an evidence box so they could hold it. Their question Tuesday went to the heart of the former police officer’s claim that she made a tragic mistake when she grabbed her gun, instead of her Taser, and shot Wright during a traffic stop April 11 in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center. Experts say such cases are rare, but they do happen. Similar cases have been reported in recent years in California, Oklahoma and Missouri. Bill Lewinski studies police psychology. He says officers sometimes perform the direct opposite of their intended actions under stress.