By Julia Urquizo and Casey Rawlings
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Former Minnesota police officer Kimberly Potter Thursday was found guilty by a jury of two counts of manslaughter in the shooting death of Daunte Wright, a young Black motorist, during a routine traffic stop in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Potter was charged with first-degree and second-degree manslaughter by a predominantly white jury for shooting Daunte on April 11, 2021, with her pistol instead of discharging her taser.
Daunte was 20 at the time of his death and was remembered by family and friends for his bright smile and outgoing demeanor.
Daunte was also a father and was well known as a dedicated father to his toddler, Daunte Jr., who was almost two. As a freshman at Thomas Edison High School, Daunte was voted a “class clown.”
Defense attorneys Earl Gray, Paul Engh, and Amanda Montgomery claimed Potter mistakenly dispelled her pistol instead of the taser after Wright allegedly resisted arrest during the traffic stop.
Daunte’s mother, Katie Wright, told reporters that her son had called her as he was being pulled over.
At a news conference outside a Minneapolis courthouse days after the shooting, Katie was joined by Courteney Ross, the girlfriend of George Floyd, and Daunte’s former teacher.
“He said they pulled him over because he had air fresheners hanging from his rearview mirror,” Katie said.
According to National Public Radio, Potter testified that she worried Wright may have been armed since he had a warrant for arrest linked to a gun charge. There were no weapons recovered in Wright’s vehicle.
The defense and prosecution argued throughout the jury trial whether Potter had any reason to draw a weapon and if she should have been able to distinguish the heavy handgun from the taser.
The defense argued that, although Potter had made what they call a mistake, her ability to draw a weapon was justified the moment Wright began to resist arrest and ignore law enforcement demands.
Prosecutor Erin Eldridge countered that in the 26 years Potter has served on the force she had undergone an ample amount of training specifically on how to discern between a handgun and taser.
Prosecutors also maintained anyone with said training as a police officer should be well equipped to differentiate between a taser and a gun.
National Public Radio quoted Eldridge stating, “This was no little oopsie. This was not putting the wrong date on a check. This was not entering the wrong password somewhere. This was a colossal screw-up, a blunder of epic proportions. It was precisely the thing she had been warned about for years, and she had been trained to prevent it.”
Potter is currently in custody with no bail awaiting her sentencing in February. First degree manslaughter carries a 15-year maximum, while second degree manslaughter has a seven-year maximum sentence.
One year before the deadly shooting of Daunte, Potter had been one of the first on the scene of the shooting of Kobe Dimock-Heisler, which occurred while police responded to a domestic disturbance call.
Though they never knew each other, Heisler and Wright were both from Brooklyn Center and around the same age when they were killed by police.
As advocates for Daunte’s life await Potter’s sentencing decision, many cries for justice have emerged.
Among cries for reform include those to disassociate routine traffic stops from police, due to the disproportionate number of Black drivers, such as Daunte, who are overrepresented among those stopped and killed.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, four percent of stops result in arrests nationally, supporting ideas to separate the two.
Over the past five years, a New York Times investigation found that police officers have killed more than 400 drivers who were not wielding a gun or a knife, or under pursuit for a violent crime—a rate of more than one a week.
Activists also urge comprehensive mental health response services, the deconstruction of police unions, and, ultimately, to defund the police.
It wasn’t routine after the police discovered he had an outstanding warrant. Officers tried to take him into custody but Wright got back into his car, causing a struggle.
So?
Of course not mentioned in the article, Daunte Wright had been arrested on attempted aggravated robbery charges after allegedly choking and holding a woman at gunpoint for $820 in December 2019.
Also, “allegations have surfaced in two different lawsuits filed against Wright’s estate that allege he was involved in the shooting of two men, including one that left the victim permanently disabled and another that occurred just three weeks before his death.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9668703/Daunte-Wright-involved-two-separate-shootings-killed-lawsuits-say.html
Yes, Kim Potter made a mistake and owned up to it. But let’s not act like Daunte Wright did nothing wrong during the traffic stop. He disobeyed the officer’s commands, tried to get back in his car and drive off. He’s also no angel as the press would try to have you believe.
“Kim Potter made a mistake and owned up to it. But let’s not act like Daunte Wright did nothing wrong during the traffic stop.”
That’s an irrelevant point that attempts to blame shift. Wright’s conduct did not justify deadly force. Potter acknowledged that. Everyone involved knew it. Otherwise she would not be claiming a mistake. It’s only a mistake if the action is not objectively justified. So the only reason to bring that up is blame shift. It was her responsibility to use the correct tool that she had, she failed to do so, the jury deemed her criminally negligent for it. (In a perfect world do I think she needs to go to prison – probably not. She clearly feels awful. I don’t see what is gained from locking her in a cage. I think a restorative justice process would be the ideal remedy here, but our system is not set up to do that).
I agree with you that Kim Potter shouldn’t go to jail. I said that Kim Potter made a mistake, but Daunte Wright would be alive today if he had obeyed the officers and didn’t try to jump back in his car and drive off, so if that is blame shifting then so be it.
How do you feel about Daunte Wright being portrayed as some boy scout when that wasn’t the case at all?
“How do you feel about Daunte Wright being portrayed as some boy scout when that wasn’t the case at all?”
I view him as a tragic loss of life that was avoidable. By the way, some experts questioned whether Wright’s level of resistance even warranted the use of a taser.
That doesn’t answer my question. My question was “How do you feel about Daunte Wright being portrayed as some boy scout when that wasn’t the case at all?”
My answer makes it clear that that calculation is not a consideration in my thinking
Your answer is a complete dodge and not wanting to acknowledge Daunte Wright’s actions.
Here, I’ll help you with some more things from his past:
“Activists also urge comprehensive mental health response services, the deconstruction of police unions, and, ultimately, to defund the police.”
Seeing how unpopular defunding the police seems to be with voters I believe attribution to unnamed activists is not good enough. We need to know who is saying this.
RG, y’know: They, Them, Those People, The Usual Suspects, Who, Peoples, Flibbertigibbets
Let’s cut to the chase here… are you saying, “that man needed killing”? You keep harping on his “guilt”…
The officer should never wear a badge again… any jurisdiction… we seem to all be in agreement that she should not have prison time, except (my opinion) for the prison of her conscience (assuming she has one… a ‘fact not in evidence’ – courtroom theatrics don’t count) … she should serve a LWOP there. The possibility of ‘restorative justice’ might commute that.
I never stated that. Quit projecting, I don’t know how many times people need to tell you that.
What I’m saying is for the most part the press hasn’t come forth with the facts about Wright’s sordid past. They’ve tried to portray him in a whole different light.
So what? If you dig enough you can always find things people did that are regrettable. That doesn’t vitiate the actions of the police officer.
I haven’t followed this case but I did see Potter crying on the stand. I’ll defer to the jury. They spent a lot of time listening to the facts and deliberating.
As for the sentencing I’ll leave that to the judge as well. His immediate order to hold Potter pending sentencing likely indicates that Potter will be doing some time.
A.G. Keith Ellison’s statement was pitch perfect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdgJho1JZtM
Sorry Ron, but I doubt that one can always “dig up” the atrocities that Wright has inflicted on others that have been outlined here by the links I provided.
I don’t think anything Keith Ellison ever does is pitch perfect.
Dismissing Ellison out of hand is a reflection of your own closed mindedness. The voters of Minnesota disagree.
My apologies, Keith O… My post, including,
was SO out of line… you haven’t been doing that at all… my bad…
The moment you decide to flee in a vehicle, you’re putting others’ lives at significant risk.
As the verdict was being read, news reports showed the happy reactions of the crowd outside. It was ugly, and I felt bad for my fellow human beings.