Source: Star Tribune via Getty Images / Getty
Kim Potter, the officer who shot and killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, has been charged with second-degree manslaughter.
Potter, a 26-year veteran with the Brooklyn Center Police Department, had already resigned from her position as an officer earlier this week.
Now, according to NBC News, she is set to face charges for Wright’s death.
According to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office, Wright died of a gunshot wound to the chest. His death has been ruled a homicide.
Potter and Police Chief Tim Gannon turned in their badges yesterday as a result of the shooting, which took place just 14 miles north of where George Floyd was killed by former officer Derek Chauvin last year, sparking a wave of international protests on behalf of Black Lives and against police brutality.
Before he resigned, Gannon told the media that Potter meant to draw her taser against Wright but instead pulled her handgun.
In body camera footage from the incident, you can hear a woman’s voice shout Taser as Wright is trying to get back into his car.
Later, the same voice says, “Holy s— I just shot him.”
Daunte’s mother, Katie Wright, was initially on the phone with her son when he was pulled over. She heard officers telling her son to exit the car as he was being pulled over.
Katie recounted the incident.
“Daunte asks, ‘For what?’ The police officer said, ‘I’ll explain to you when you get out of the car.’ He said, ‘Am I in trouble?’ One of the officers said, ‘We’ll explain all of that when you step out of the car.”
The call was disconnected after that. But minutes later, the person in the passenger seat answered Katie’s call with video. There’s she saw that Daunte had been shot.
“She pointed the phone toward the driver’s seat, and my son was laying there unresponsive,” Katie Wright said. “That was the last time that I have seen my son. That was the last time I’ve heard from my son, and I have had no explanation since then.”
Police claim Daunte was stopped because the license plate was expired.
According to Daunte’s parents, the 20-year-old was an “adoring father” with sibling and parents he loved. In a recent interview, Wright’s father told The Washington Post, that Daunte had a learning disability and dropped out of high school two years ago. He planned to get his GED in order to better support his son, Daunte Jr.
Reportedly, the car Daunte was driving shortly before he was killed was recently gifted to him by a family member.
A memorial Go Fund Me has been set up in Daunte’s honor and at the time of publication has raised $603,000 of their $500,000 goal.
