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This
booking
photo
released
by the
Hennepin
County,
Minn.,
Sheriff
shows
Kim
Potter,
a former
Brooklyn
Center,
Minn.,
police
officer
who is
charged
Wednesday,
April
14,
2021,
with
second-degree
manslaughter
for
killing
20-year-old
Black
motorist
Daunte
Wright
in a
shooting
that
ignited
days of
unrest
and
clashes
between
protesters
and
police.
(Hennepin
County
Sheriff
via AP)
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Former
Minnesota
cop
charged
in
shooting
of Black
motorist
By
SCOTT
BAUER
and
MIKE
HOUSEHOLDER
apnews.com
BROOKLYN
CENTER -
A
prosecutor
said
Wednesday
that he
charged
a white
former
suburban
Minneapolis
police
officer
with
second-degree
manslaughter
for
killing
20-year-old
Black
motorist
Daunte
Wright
in a
shooting
that
ignited
days of
unrest
and
clashes
between
protesters
and
police.
The
charge
against
former
Brooklyn
Center
police
Officer
Kim
Potter
was
filed
Wednesday,
three
days
after
Wright
was
killed
during a
traffic
stop and
as the
nearby
murder
trial
progresses
for the
ex-officer
charged
with
killing
George
Floyd
last
May,
Washington
County
Attorney
Pete
Orput
said.
The
former
Brooklyn
Center
police
chief
has said
that
Potter,
a
26-year
veteran
and
training
officer,
intended
to use
her
Taser on
Wright
but
fired
her
handgun
instead.
However,
protesters
and
Wright’s
family
members
say
there’s
no
excuse
for the
shooting
and that
it shows
how the
justice
system
is
tilted
against
Blacks,
noting
Wright
was
stopped
for
expired
car
registration
and
ended up
dead.
“Certain
occupations
carry an
immense
responsibility
and none
more so
than a
sworn
police
officer,”
Imran
Ali,
Washington
County
assistant
criminal
division
chief,
said in
a
statement
announcing
the
charge.
“(Potter’s)
action
caused
the
unlawful
killing
of Mr.
Wright
and she
must be
held
accountable.”
Ali
said he
and
Orput
met with
Wright’s
family
and
assured
them
that no
resources
would be
spared
in
prosecuting
the
case.
Intent
isn’t a
necessary
component
of
second-degree
manslaughter
in
Minnesota.
The
charge —
which
carries
a
maximum
penalty
of 10
years in
prison —
can be
applied
in
circumstances
where a
person
is
suspected
of
causing
a death
by
“culpable
negligence”
that
creates
an
unreasonable
risk and
consciously
takes
chances
to cause
the
death of
a
person.
Potter,
48, was
arrested
Wednesday
morning
at the
Bureau
of
Criminal
Apprehension
in St.
Paul.
Her
attorney
did not
immediately
respond
to
messages
from The
Associated
Press.
Potter
and
Police
Chief
Tim
Gannon
both
resigned
Tuesday.
Concrete
barricades
and tall
metal
fencing
had been
set up
around
Potter’s
home in
Champlin,
north of
Brooklyn
Center,
with
police
cars
guarding
the
driveway.
After
Floyd’s
death
last
year,
protesters
demonstrated
several
times at
the home
of Derek
Chauvin,
the
former
Minneapolis
officer
now on
trial in
Floyd’s
death.
Police
say
Wright
was
pulled
over for
expired
tags on
Sunday,
but they
sought
to
arrest
him
after
discovering
he had
an
outstanding
warrant.
The
warrant
was for
his
failure
to
appear
in court
on
charges
that he
fled
from
officers
and
possessed
a gun
without
a permit
during
an
encounter
with
Minneapolis
police
in June.
Body
camera
video
that
Gannon
released
Monday
shows
Potter
approaching
Wright
as he
stands
outside
of his
car as
another
officer
is
arresting
him.
As
Wright
struggles
with
police,
Potter
shouts,
“I’ll
Tase
you!
I’ll
Tase
you!
Taser!
Taser!
Taser!”
before
firing a
single
shot
from a
handgun
in her
right
hand.
The
news
release
announcing
the
charge
noted
that
Potter
holstered
her
handgun
on the
right
side and
her
Taser on
the
left.
The
handles
of each
weapon
faced to
Potter’s
rear.
The
Taser is
yellow
with a
black
grip and
would
require
Potter
to
remove
it from
her
holster
with her
left
hand,
the
county
attorney’s
statement
said.
Wright
family
attorney
Ben
Crump
said the
family
appreciates
the
criminal
case,
but he
again
disputed
that the
shooting
was
accidental,
arguing
that an
experienced
officer
knows
the
difference
between
a Taser
and a
handgun.
“Kim
Potter
executed
Daunte
for what
amounts
to no
more
than a
minor
traffic
infraction
and a
misdemeanor
warrant,”
he said.
Experts
say
cases of
officers
mistakenly
firing
their
gun
instead
of a
Taser
are
rare,
usually
less
than
once a
year
nationwide.
Transit
officer
Johannes
Mehserle
was
convicted
of
involuntary
manslaughter
and
sentenced
to two
years in
prison
after
responding
to a
fight at
a train
station
in
Oakland,
California,
killing
22-year-old
Oscar
Grant in
2009.
Mehserle
testified
at trial
that he
mistakenly
pulled
his
.40-caliber
handgun
instead
of his
stun
gun.
In
Oklahoma,
a white
volunteer
sheriff’s
deputy
for
Tulsa
County,
Robert
Bates,
was
convicted
of
second-degree
manslaughter
after
accidentally
firing
his
handgun
when he
meant to
deploy
his stun
gun on
Eric
Harris,
a Black
man who
was
being
held
down by
other
officers
in 2015.
Potter
was an
instructor
with
Brooklyn
Center
police,
according
to the
Minnesota
Police
and
Peace
Officers
Association.
She was
training
two
other
officers
when
they
stopped
Wright,
the
association’s
leader,
Brian
Peters,
told the
Star
Tribune.
On
Tuesday
night,
hundreds
of
demonstrators
again
gathered
at
Brooklyn
Center’s
heavily
guarded
police
headquarters,
now
ringed
by
concrete
barriers
and a
tall
metal
fence,
and
where
police
in riot
gear and
National
Guard
soldiers
stood
watch.
About 90
minutes
before a
10 p.m.
curfew,
state
police
announced
over a
loudspeaker
that the
gathering
had been
declared
unlawful
and
ordered
the
crowds
to
disperse.
Protesters
launched
fireworks
toward
the
station
and
threw
objects
at
officers,
who
launched
flashbangs
and gas
grenades,
then
marched
in a
line to
force
back the
crowd.
The
number
of
protesters
plummeted
over the
next
hour,
until
only a
few
remained.
Police
also
ordered
all
media to
leave.
Brooklyn
Center,
a suburb
just
north of
Minneapolis,
has seen
its
racial
demographics
shift
dramatically
in
recent
years.
In 2000,
more
than 70%
of the
city was
white.
Today, a
majority
of
residents
are
Black,
Asian or
Hispanic.
Mayor
Mike
Elliot t
said
Tuesday
that he
didn’t
have at
hand
information
on the
police
force’s
racial
diversity
but that
“we have
very few
people
of color
in our
department.”
___
Bauer
contributed
from
Madison,
Wisconsin.
Associated
Press
writers
Doug
Glass
and
Mohamed
Ibrahim
in
Minneapolis;
Tim
Sullivan
in
Brooklyn
Center;
and
Stephen
Groves
in Sioux
Falls,
South
Dakota,
contributed
to this
report.
___
Find
AP’s
full
coverage
of the
death of
Daunte
Wright
at:
https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-daunte-wright
___
This
story
has been
updated
to
correct
the name
of the
leader
of the
Minnesota
Police
and
Peace
Officers
Association
to Brian
Peters,
instead
of Bill
Peters,
and to
correct
when
manslaughter
might
apply in
a case.
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