Former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter fell apart Friday while testifying in her manslaughter trial for the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright.
Potter, 49, fatally shot 20-year-old Wright following his attempt to flee officers during a traffic stop in April in Brooklyn Center.
“Did you see anything when you saw this?” Potter was asked. “What did you do?”
“We were struggling, we were trying to keep him from driving away, it just went chaotic, and then I remember yelling ‘taser, taser, taser’ and nothing happened,” Potter testified as she began to cry. “And then he told me I shot him.”
Bodycam footage from Brooklyn Center Sgt. Mychal Johnson showed a frantic Potter screaming “Oh my God!” after she realized she shot Wright. “Holy sh*t! I just shot him!”
Johnson could be heard trying to console Potter saying, “Kim, that guy was trying to take off with me in the car.”
Johnson testified that had Wright hit the gas he could have been dragged by. Footage of the incident showed Wright escaped from police officers who had pulled his hands behind his back while placing him under arrest. Wright then jumped in the driver’s seat of his car and put the car in gear.
Stephen Ijames, a veteran Missouri police officer, testified that Potter had been justified in using force – whether it had been the taser or the gun. Ijames testified the officers were probably hyper-vigilant upon learning Wright had a warrant for his arrest.
“The very nature of flight and resistance brings with it danger to people in the path,” Ijames testified, noting it would have been a “dereliction of duty” to allow Wright to flee.
University of South Carolina School of Law Seth Stoughton testified Potter acted in an “excessive and inappropriate” manner.
“The use of deadly force was not appropriate and the evidence suggests that a reasonable officer in Officer Potter’s position could not have believed it was proportional to the threat at the time.”
Stroughton added deadly force would have been proportional but “inappropriate because of the proximity of two other officers and the passenger.”
