Former police officer Kim Potter, 48, has been accused of “culpable negligence” in the fatal accidental shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright. Potter has been arrested in the early hours of Wednesday and charged with second-degree manslaughter.
Daunte Wright’s accidental killing has ignited racial tensions once more as hundreds of Black Lives Matter supporters erupted into violence over the last few nights. More than 70 arrests have been made following clashes with the local law enforcement.
“Kimberly Ann Potter caused the death of Daunte Demetrius Wright, by her culpable negligence, whereby Kimberly Potter created an unreasonable risk and consciously took a chance of causing death or great bodily harm to Daunte Demetrius Wright,” state prosecutors stated in the complaint, filed in court on Wednesday.
Agents from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension arrested a former Brooklyn Center police officer, Kim Potter, in connection to the killing of Daunte Wright. https://t.co/GsbBtN3Umu
— WKOW 27 News (@WKOW) April 14, 2021
Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Center Police Department, will stay in jail until her first court appearance Thursday. The charges against Potter carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison under Minnesota law. Ms. Potter along with the city’s police chief, Tim Gannon, resigned Tuesday following the violence in the city.
Police initially described the shooting of Mr. Wright as accidental. Explaining that Potter mistook her gun for a Taser. The body-camera footage below shows former officer Potter yelling “Taser-Taser-Taser” before firing her gun, once, at the suspect.
A state investigator who examined her duty belt after the shooting said the Taser was on her left side and her handgun on the right.
“Officer Potter abrogated her responsibility to protect the public when she used her firearm rather than her Taser,” said Imran Ali, the assistant criminal division chief in the Washington County Attorney’s office, in a statement. “Her action caused the unlawful killing of Mr. Wright and she must be held accountable.”
Body-camera footage shows Wright struggling with police when a female officer shouts, “I’ll Tase you! I’ll Tase you! Taser! Taser! Taser!” She draws her weapon after the man breaks free from the police and gets back into the car. After firing a single shot, the car speeds away, and Potter says, “Holy (expletive)! I shot him.”
Ben Crump, a renowned civil rights attorney, claimed in a statement that the Potter shooting was “no accident,” as “driving while Black continues to result in a death sentence.”
“While we appreciate that the district attorney is pursuing justice for Daunte, no conviction can give the Wright family their loved one back. This was no accident. This was an intentional, deliberate, and unlawful use of force. Driving while Black continues to result in a death sentence,” Crump proclaimed in a joint statement.
“A 26-year veteran of the force knows the difference between a taser and a firearm. Kim Potter executed Daunte for what amounts to no more than a minor traffic infraction and a misdemeanor warrant,” the statement continued. “Daunte’s life, like George Floyd’s life, like Eric Garner’s, like Breonna Taylor’s, like David Smith’s meant something. But Kim Potter saw him as expendable. It’s past time for meaningful change in our country. We will keep fighting for justice for Daunte, for his family, and for all marginalized people of color. And we will not stop until there is meaningful policing and justice reform and until we reach our goal of true equality.”
