Minnesota ex-cop says she's 'so sorry' for shooting Daunte Wright
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[December 18, 2021]
By Nathan Layne
(Reuters) -Kimberly Potter, the white
former Minnesota police officer on trial for fatally shooting Black
motorist Daunte Wright, broke down in tears on Friday as she testified
to being deeply sorry for mistaking her handgun for her Taser during a
traffic stop.
Potter, 49, has pleaded not guilty to first- and second-degree
manslaughter charges, which carry maximum sentences of 15 and 10 years
respectively. Potter has said she thought she was drawing her Taser when
she shot Wright in the chest with her Glock 9mm handgun on April 11.
"I'm sorry it happened. I'm so sorry," Potter said as she sobbed and
shook on the witness stand. "I didn't want to hurt anybody."
The defense rested its case and closing arguments were set for Monday.
Potter was a police officer in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center
for 26 years prior to the shooting, which triggered several nights of
protests, with critics calling it another example of police violence
against Black Americans.
The incident occurred just a few miles north of where Derek Chauvin, a
white former Minneapolis police officer, was at the same time standing
trial https://www.reuters.com/world/us/jurors-resume-deliberations-derek-chauvin-murder-trial-2021-04-20
in the case of George Floyd, a Black man whose 2020 death during an
arrest set off racial justice protests in many U.S. cities. Chauvin was
convicted of murder.
Potter and another police officer she was training pulled Wright over
because there was an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror and
his vehicle's license tabs were expired. They then learned of a warrant
for his arrest on a misdemeanor weapons charge and sought to detain him,
which Wright resisted.
Potter can be heard shouting, "Taser, Taser, Taser," on her body-worn
camera before firing into Wright's vehicle after he broke free from a
second officer and tried to drive away. A third officer, Sergeant Mychal
Johnson, had entered through the passenger side and was trying to keep
the car in park.
Under questioning from her lawyer, Potter said that it was the officer
she was training who made the decision to pull Wright over, and that she
likely would not have made the same call, given that drivers were
generally having difficulty renewing their registrations due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Potter said she saw Johnson struggling with Wright over the gear shift
with "a look of fear on his face," and that she feared for his safety.
"We were trying to keep him from driving away. It just went chaotic,"
Potter said.
She testified that she did not remember saying "I'm going to prison," an
utterance caught on police video, and recalled little else until she was
met by her husband later in the day.
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Kimberly Potter, the white former Minnesota police officer who
killed Black motorist Daunte Wright in April after claiming she
mistook her handgun for her Taser, tearfully described the moment
Friday during her testimony.
The testimony underscored a core strategy of the defense. Throughout
the trial, Potter's attorneys have sought to portray the situation
as dangerous for the officers, with Johnson at risk of being dragged
down the street. They have argued that Potter justifiably used force
even if she drew the wrong weapon.
Potter said she had a duty to find out whether the female passenger
in Wright's car was safe, given that the officers learned when
making the stop that a woman had taken out a restraining order
against him.
Prosecutors have argued that Potter was a veteran and well-trained
officer - including Taser-specific courses in the months before the
incident - making her criminally culpable for the shooting. They
called 25 witnesses, compared with eight for the defense, with many
testifying about training and procedures.
Erin Eldridge, a state assistant attorney general, challenged
Potter's assertion that she shot Wright because she was concerned
for Johnson's safety, noting that Potter did not act like the
shooting was justified in the immediate aftermath.
"After you shot Daunte Wright, you didn't behave like someone who
had just saved Sergeant Johnson’s life. Did you?" Eldridge asked
during cross-examination.
"I was very distraught. I just shot somebody," Potter responded.
"You didn't run down the street and try to save Daunte Wright's
life, did you?" Eldridge asked.
"No," Potter said through tears.
Neither of the manslaughter charges require prosecutors to prove
that Potter intended to cause Wright's death.
For first-degree manslaughter, prosecutors must show Potter killed
Wright while recklessly handling a firearm. The second-degree charge
requires that Potter be found to have killed Wright through
"culpable negligence."
(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Editing by Mark
Porter and Jonathan Oatis)
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