Kim Potter guilty of manslaughter in death of Daunte Wright

 

 

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• Kimberly Potter, a white former Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, police officer, was found guilty of first- and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Daunte Wright. Wright, an unarmed Black man, was 20 when Potter shot him this past April during a traffic stop. [Axios / Nick Halter and Torey Van Oot]
• The defense argued that Potter was within her rights to use a weapon because Wright was using cannabis and resisting arrest, endangering Potter’s and her colleagues’ lives. They also argued that she meant to reach for her Taser, but instead pulled her gun and fatally shot Wright. [Minneapolis Star-Tribune / Paul Walsh, Chao Xiong, and Rochelle Olson]
• That argument did not convince the jury, which deliberated for 27 hours over four days. Potter has not yet been sentenced, but a first-degree manslaughter conviction can carry up to a 15-year sentence. [NYT / Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs]
• Potter had initially pulled Wright over for having expired license tabs and an air freshener on his rearview mirror, then realized he had a warrant out for his arrest for failing to appear in court on a weapons charge. Body camera footage shows that when Wright shook off an officer who was attempting to handcuff him and returned to his car, Potter yelled for a Taser but reached for her department-issued 9mm Glock and shot Wright instead. [NPR / Vanessa Romo and Becky Sullivan]
• While both the defense and prosecution agreed that Potter had made a mistake in drawing the gun, at issue was whether she should be held responsible for it. “She drew a deadly weapon, she aimed it, she pointed it at Daunte Wright’s chest and she fired,” the prosecution said during closing arguments. [CBS]
• Potter testified that Wright did not threaten her or her colleagues during their encounter, and that she neither administered medical care to Wright after shooting him nor checked on her colleagues after she shot Wright. Wright had apparently never fired her gun on duty during her nearly 30-year career, nor had she had a complaint filed against her. [CNN / Ray Sanchez, Adrienne Broaddus, and Brad Parks]
• But her experience and training, the prosecution argued, was precisely what should have kept her from making the fatal mistake. [AP / Amy Forliti and Scott Bauer]