Ex-Brooklyn Center Cop Found Guilty in Daunte Wright Death
Former Brooklyn Center officer Kim Potter as the verdict was read in the courtroom Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021
After a trial lasting eight days and deliberating for more than a combined 27 hours, a jury has found former Brooklyn Center police officer Kimberly Potter guilty on first and second-degree manslaughter charges for the death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright on April 11.
Sentencing for Potter is set for Feb. 18, 2022, but state guidelines call for a sentence of around seven years. State prosecutors have previously said they intend to seek an aggravated sentence.
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On April 11, Potter, 49, along with an officer that she was training, made a traffic stop on a vehicle that Wright was driving. A third officer later arrived to provide backup. During the traffic stop, officers discovered that Wright was driving without a license, had no insurance, had expired registration, observed marijuana residue in the center console, and learned that Wright had a gross misdemeanor warrant for a weapons charge.
When officers attempted to take Wright into custody, he began fighting with officers and got back into his vehicle.
During the struggle, Potter yelled, “Taser, Taser, Taser!” in a warning to other officers that she intended to deploy her taser. Instead, Potter said she accidentally drew her firearm instead and fired one shot into Wright, killing him.
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Kimberly Ann Potter, in a mugshot released Dec. 23, 2021
After Wright’s death, protests at the Brooklyn Center police department led to arrests and thousands of dollars property damage. Disputes within city leadership led to the Brooklyn Center City Council to fire the city manager and drew the resignation of the police chief.
Daunte Wright in an undated photo from Facebook
During the trial, the state argued that Potter was negligent and acted recklessly that day, and that her years of training and experience should have prevented the shooting. Assistant state prosecutor Erin Eldridge told jurors that Potter “made a series of bad choices that led to her shooting and killing Daunte Wright. This was no little oopsie.” The prosecution called an expert witness who said that use of a firearm was not justified and that use of a Taser would have been discouraged because Wright’s position in the car made him likely to be able to easily drive away.
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The defense countered with their own expert witness who testified that Wright wasn’t in control of the vehicle, and that his warrant required officers to arrest him. He told jurors it would have been a “dereliction of duty not to,” countering the state’s argument that Wright could have been arrested at a later time. He stated that a Taser was appropriate and reasonable in the situation, and also told jurors that deadly force may have been reasonable if Potter thought another officer was in immediate danger.
Potter took the stand on the last day of the trial and testified that she had never deployed her Taser or her firearm in her career. She also said she had never received any complaints from being a police officer. During cross-examination by Eldridge, Potter broke down and was visibly upset while being shown body camera footage frame-by-frame leading up to the shooting, at one point saying, “I’m sorry it happened.”
After the verdict was read, Potter was seen being consoled by her attorneys but did not appear to show much emotion. Defense attorneys made a motion to have Potter remain out of custody until sentencing on her previously posted bail, but Judge Regina Chu denied the motion, and Potter was taken into custody by the court bailiffs to be held until sentencing.