WASHINGTON (AP) – The fatal shooting of an unarmed Australian woman in Minnesota isn’t by any means the first time police in the U.S. have mistakenly killed someone who called them for help or to report a crime.
Officers around the nation have mistakenly slain or wounded people in other cases, including a pregnant Seattle mother shot to death earlier this year after reporting a break-in and a Georgia man who in 2014 reported that his girlfriend had been stabbed and was fatally shot by the responding officer.
The death of Justine Damond, who was white, comes after several years of public debate about police use of force following the video-recorded deaths of black men at the hands of officers.
“Mainstream America is now looking at this and saying, ‘Wow, we’ve got a problem,’ and yet it’s been going on over and over,” said Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
Matthew Barge, executive director of the Police Assessment Resource Center’s New York City office, said additional training for officers on when to draw and fire their weapons is always a good idea.