The Washington County Attorney’s Office will charge former Brooklyn Center police officer Kimberly A. Potter with second-degree manslaughter in the shooting death on Sunday of Daunte Wright, according to Washington County Attorney Pete Orput.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman referred the case to Orput under a practice adopted last year among metro area county attorney’s offices for deadly police shootings. It calls for the county attorney in the jurisdiction where the shooting took place to refer the case to one of the other counties, or the state Attorney General’s Office, to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.
The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigated the shooting.
Potter, 48, joined the Brooklyn Center police force in 1995 at the age of 22. She was placed on standard administrative leave following the shooting. She resigned Tuesday.
She is being represented by attorney Earl Gray.
Potter was training in a new officer on Sunday at about 2 p.m. when she and two officers stopped a car near N. 63rd and Orchard avenues. Former Brooklyn Center police chief Tim Gannon, who also resigned Tuesday, told media that officers stopped Wright’s car because it had an expired tag, and when they checked his name found he had a warrant.
Hennepin County District Court records show a warrant was issued April 2 for Wright after he failed to make his first court appearance on a case filed in March of carrying a pistol without a permit, a gross misdemeanor, and fleeing police, a misdemeanor.
Update: #DaunteWright was in the process of getting arrested by @BPPD for a weapons charge & escaping police before he was killed yesterday, sparking #BLM race rioting & looting. The criminal complaint says he had an illegal Ruger .45 pistol. He skipped his court date this month. pic.twitter.com/dI4zScGLo5
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) April 12, 2021
In bodycam footage released by the Brooklyn Center Police Department, Wright is seen getting out of his car during the stop and standing near the open driver’s door as one of the officers pulls out handcuffs. A few moments later, Wright starts to struggle with the officers and gets back into his car. Potter shouts “Taser!” three times before firing a single bullet, then says “Holy shit. I just shot him.”
With Wright in the driver’s seat, the car pulls away. The car crashed a short distance away when it hit another vehicle. Wright died at the scene. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said Wright died of a gunshot wound to the chest and labeled his death a homicide.
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The sad part is this bottom feeder who was a savage predator is being propped up along with his like-wise pack animals as a victim and will be the poster boy of left wing canonization.
His family should be thanking the police. They turned him from a low life criminal, into a saint, in the blink of an eye. Plus, they will get MILLIONS from the taxpayers. It’s a win, win for them.
OF course they will.. WHILE THE COPS get the shaft.
Again no body looks at the victim’s? action of NOT wanting to be arrested for a robbery warrant lead him to his death. Surrender to the arrest , he would still be alive.
IT Matters not what he did.. HE IS BLACK, she is white.. THAT IS all that matters anymore.
This is such absolute BS. It is going to be a long hot summer.
IT was already a long hot summer last year. Just more of the same this.
Daunte Wright or one less criminal on the streets. Unfortunately, this police officer for making an honest mistake, is being railroaded.
It’s simple really: politicians need a sacrificial lamb to throw to the unplacatable BLM/Antifa angry mobs in an attempt to cover their own rears!
EVERY COP OUT there, white black or otherwise, needs to realize this.. IF THEY DO ANYTHING TO black perps, they are likely to get hung out to dry…
Very simple defense for officer. She did not mean to do it which was Hillary’s defense via Comey. Case dismissed!!!!!
And, she should claim that as a female, she is entitled to use of a lesser standard of performance under pressure.
LOL.. I’d love to see her TRY that angle.
But yet the cop that killed the white woman in the capital protests won’t be charged.
OF COURSE NOT.. She was white, the shooter black.
SO much for white privilege.