Former police officer Kimberly Ann Potter, 49, is scheduled to be sentenced for shooting and killing Minnesota man Daunte Wright, 20, during a botched April 11, 2021 traffic stop. Court is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. CT / 10 a.m. ET. You can watch in the player above.
Brooklyn Center Officer Andrew Luckey tried to arrest Wright on a misdemeanor warrant during the traffic stop. Wright resisted and managed to get back into the driver’s seat of his car. Potter, who was serving as Luckey’s training officer, took out her handgun but repeatedly yelled out that it was a Taser before she pulled the trigger. She shot Wright in the chest, and the dying man drove off, crashing down the street.
“I grabbed the wrong fucking gun!” Potter screamed out. “I shot him! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!”
She resigned soon after the shooting.
Her defense argued that though she did not intend to use her gun, she was justified in shooting Wright anyway. They argued that the 20-year-old was in danger of dragging off someone.
The prosecution maintained that Wright was never in danger of doing that. Sgt. Mychal Johnson grabbed his right arm, stopping him from driving, the state asserted.
Potter, a well-trained 26-year police veteran, nonetheless freed up her right hand — her gun hand — and pulled out her firearm even though she was standing behind Luckey at the driver’s side of Wright’s vehicle and did not have a clear view of what was happening. She escalated the situation, they said.
Jurors in Hennepin County ultimately found Potter guilty of both first-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter.
#KimPotterTrial – Kim Potter’s husband, “Love you Kim!” as she’s handcuffed and escorted out. @LawCrimeNetwork #DaunteWright pic.twitter.com/9OMAMbuMYo
— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) December 23, 2021
“It was a tragedy of her own making,” Assistant Attorney General Erin Eldridge told the jury.
[Prison photo via Minnesota Department of Corrections]
