Kim Potter guilty of manslaughter in Daunte Wrights death
A suburban Minneapolis police officer who said she confused her handgun for her Taser was convicted of manslaughter on Thursday in the death of Daunte Wright, prompting tears from the young Black mans parents and a jubilant celebration by supporters outside the courthouse who chanted “Guilty, guilty, guilty!” The mostly white jury deliberated for about 27 hours over four days before finding former Brooklyn Centre officer Kim Potter guilty of first-degree and second-degree manslaughter. Potter, 49, faces about seven years in prison on the most serious count under the states sentencing guidelines, but prosecutors said they would seek a longer term.
Judge Regina Chu ordered Potter taken into custody and held without bail, and scheduled her to be sentenced on February 18. As she was led away in handcuffs, a Potter family member in the courtroom shouted “Love you, Kim!” Outside the courthouse, dozens of people who had gathered erupted in cheers, hugs and tears of joy as the verdicts were read. Two men jumped up and down holding one anothers shoulders. Other people then began jumping up and down in place and chanting “Guilty, guilty, guilty!” They chanted “Say his name! Daunte Wright”. Some held yellow signs that said “guilty” in large block letters.
Potter, who testified that she “didnt want to hurt anybody”, looked down without showing any visible reaction when the verdicts were read. As Chu thanked the jury, Potter made the sign of the cross.
Potters attorneys argued against her being held without bail, saying she wasnt going to commit another crime or go anywhere. “It is the Christmas holiday season,” Potter attorney Paul Engh argued. “Shes a devoted Catholic, no less, and there is no point to incarcerate her at this point in time.” Chu rejected their arguments.
“I cannot treat this case any differently than any other case,” she said.
After Potter was led from the courtroom, prosecutor Erin Eldridge exchanged a long hug with a tearful Katie Bryant, Wrights mother and a frequent presence at the trial, and with Wrights father. Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office handled the prosecution, also exchanged hugs with the parents.
It was the second high-profile conviction of a police officer won this year by a team led by Ellison, including some of the same attorneys who helped convict Derek Chauvin in George Floyds death in the very same courtroom just eight months earlier.
Outside the courthouse afterward, Ellison said the verdict brought a measure of accountability for Potter but fell short of justice.
“Justice would be restoring Daunte to life and making the Wright family whole again,” Ellison said. “Justice is beyond the reach that we have in this life for Daunte. But accountability is an important step, a critical necessary step on the road to justice for us all.” Ellison said he felt sympathy for Potter, who has gone from being an “esteemed member to the community” to being convicted of a serious crime.
Wrights mother, Katie Bryant, hugged Ellison and said the verdicts triggered “every single emotion that you could imagine”.
“Today we have gotten accountability and thats what weve been asking for from the beginning,” Katie Bryant said, crediting supporters for keeping up pressure.
“We love you, we appreciate you, and honestly, we could not have done it without you,” she said.
The time-stamps on the verdicts showed that the jurors agreed on the second count on Tuesday, before they asked the judge that afternoon what to do if they were having difficulty agreeing. The guilty verdict on the more serious first-degree count was reached at 11:40 am Thursday.
Potter, who is white, shot and killed the 20-year-old Wright during an April 11 traffic stop in Brooklyn Center as she and other officers were trying to arrest him on an outstanding warrant for a weapons possession charge. The shooting happened at a time of high tension in the area, with Chauvin standing trial in nearby Minneapolis for Floyds death. Potter resigned two days later.
Jurors saw video of the shooting that was captured by police body cameras and dashcams. It showed Potter and an officer she was training, Anthony Luckey, pull over Wright for having expired license plate tags and an air freshener hanging from his rear-view mirror. During the stop, Luckey discovered there was a warrant for Wrights arrest for not appearing in court on the weapons possession charge, and he, Potter and another officer went to take Wright into custody.
Wright obeyed Luckeys order to get out of his car, but as Luckey tried to handcuff him, Wright pulled away and got back in. As Luckey held onto Wright, Potter said “Ill tase ya”. The video then shows Potter holding her gun in her right hand and pointing it at Wright. Again, Potter said, “Ill tase you”, and then two seconds later, “Taser, Taser, Taser”. One second later, she fired a single bullet into Wrights chest.
“(Expletive)! I just shot him… I grabbed the wrong (expletive) gun,” Potter said. A minute later, she said, “Im going to go to prison”.
In sometimes tearful testimony, Potter told jurors that she was “sorry it happened”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)