Former Minnesota Police Officer Kim Potter Found Guilty of Manslaughter in Death of Daunte Wright
Kim Potter, the Brooklyn Center police officer who fatally shot black motorist Daunte Wright during a traffic stop was arrested and charged with first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in April.
After 26 hours of deliberations, a Minneapolis jury found the former Minnesota police officer guilty on both charges.
Potter faces up to 15 years in prison.
NBC News reported:
A Minneapolis jury on Thursday convicted former police officer Kim Potter on all charges she faced for fatally shooting Black motorist Daunte Wright earlier this year.
The Hennepin County panel found Potter guilty of first-degree manslaughter, meaning she improperly used “such force and violence that death of or great bodily harm to any person was reasonably foreseeable.”
Jurors also found the white former officer guilty of second-degree manslaughter charge, which only required a finding of “culpable negligence” that created “unreasonable risk, and consciously takes chances of causing death or great bodily harm to another.”
Potter faces a maximum of 15 years behind bars. The jury consisted of one Black person, two Asian American people and nine white people.
Bodycam footage released in April of this year showed that Daunte Wright resisted arrest and fled the scene.
Police were in the process of cuffing Wright when he broke free and jumped in his car.
Officer Kim Potter screamed, “Taser! Taser! Taser!” before she discharged her weapon.
Wright crashed his car after he tried to flee the scene.
Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon came under fire after he called the shooting of Daunte Wright an “accidental discharge.”
“It is my belief that the officer had the intention to employ their taser, but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet,” he said in April.
Potter’s sentencing is scheduled for February 18th.
