Kimberly Potter Found Guilty: The prosecution and defense agreed that Ms. Potter, a white officer, had meant to draw her Taser when she fatally shot Mr. Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop.
The former police officer who fatally shot a man in a Minneapolis suburb after seeming to mistake her gun for her Taser was convicted of two counts of manslaughter on Tuesday, a rare guilty verdict for a police officer that is likely to send her to prison for years.
The jury of 12 took more than 27 hours over four days to reach the unanimous guilty verdicts for Kimberly Potter, a 49-year-old white woman who testified that she had never fired her gun on the police force in Brooklyn Center, Minn., until April 11, when she shot a single bullet into the chest of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who had been driving to a carwash.
Judge Regina Chu ordered that Ms. Potter be immediately jailed, and deputies led her out of the courtroom in handcuffs as one of her relatives shouted, “Love you, Kim!” As the verdict was read, Ms. Potter looked down briefly and then glanced at the jurors, but did not appear to cry, as she did when she testified earlier in the trial.
Judge Chu will sentence Ms. Potter at a hearing scheduled for February. The standard sentence range for the more serious charge, first-degree manslaughter, is between about six to eight and a half years in prison, and the maximum penalty is 15 years. Prosecutors have indicated that they will ask the judge to hand down a longer-than-average prison term, and Ms. Potter’s lawyers are likely to ask for a sentencing below the standard range.
Mr. Wright’s parents let out cries in the courtroom as the guilty verdicts were read, and several dozen of Mr. Wright’s supporters celebrated outside of the courthouse in downtown Minneapolis.
Live Updates: Kimberly Potter Found Guilty
Inside the courtroom, one of Kimberly Potter’s relatives shouts, “Love you Kim!” and she responds, “Love you,” from behind her mask as she is handcuffed. Deputies then lead her out of the courtroom.
33 minutes ago
Reporting from Minneapolis
Kimberly Potter is scheduled to be sentenced at a hearing on Feb. 18.
34 minutes ago
Reporting from Minneapolis
Minnesota sentencing guidelines recommend a sentence of a little over seven years for first-degree manslaughter, the more serious of the two counts on which Potter was found guilty. She was also convicted of second-degree manslaughter, but that is unlikely to affect her sentence, because it was for the same act.
43 minutes ago
Reporting from Minneapolis
The judge said she would order that Kimberly Potter immediately be taken to jail, where she would be held without bail until a sentencing hearing. Potter’s lawyers are asking for the judge to instead set bail, saying that Potter feels “overwhelming” remorse. Her lead lawyer, Paul Engh, adds: “It is the Christmas holiday season. She is a devoted Catholic, no less. There is no point to incarcerate her.”
Reporting from Minneapolis
The judge rules that Kimberly Potter will be immediately taken into custody without bail. She will remain in jail until she is sentenced, probably in a few weeks. “I cannot treat this case any differently than any other case,” the judge says.
Reporting from Minneapolis
Kimberly Potter looked down as the verdict was read, then held her head up. She did not appear to cry. Two of her lawyers held her shoulders. She looked briefly at the jurors whose decision will probably send her to prison for years.
49 minutes ago
Reporting from Minneapolis
On the first and more serious count, first-degree manslaughter, for killing Daunte Wright, the jury finds Kimberly Potter guilty.
49 minutes ago
Reporting from Minneapolis
On the second count, second-degree manslaughter, for killing Daunte Wright, the jury finds Kimberly Potter guilty.
48 minutes ago
This guilty verdict is likely to surprise many experts who felt a conviction would be tough because the evidence was much more in line with the typical police killing case, in which jurors have historically sided with officers, than the case against Derek Chauvin for murdering George Floyd. Here — unlike in the Chauvin case — the defense argued that had Potter made a split-second decision in a dangerous situation.
Who was Daunte Wright?
Daunte Wright has been remembered by friends as upbeat and gregarious, someone who loved to play basketball and was a supportive father to his son, Daunte Jr., who was a year old when Mr. Wright, 20, was killed by a police officer during a traffic stop.
“He always said he couldn’t wait to make his son proud,” Katie Bryant, Mr. Wright’s mother, said at his funeral in April. “Junior was the joy of his life, and he lived for him every single day, and now he’s not going to be able to see him.”
Mr. Wright died on April 11 during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, a Minneapolis suburb, when a police officer, Kimberly Potter, fired a single shot from her handgun, apparently mistaking it for her Taser.
Mr. Wright had been working at a Taco Bell and at a Famous Footwear shoe store shortly before he died, and was considering a career in carpentry, his mother testified in court. She said he had enrolled in the Summit Academy, a vocational school, about two months before he was killed. He had six siblings and was living at his parents’ home with his two younger sisters.
A little over a month after his death, a lawsuit against Mr. Wright’s family raised questions about whether Mr. Wright was involved in a violent dispute in May 2019.
The woman who filed the lawsuit claimed that Mr. Wright had shot her son — a former friend of Mr. Wright’s — in the head in Minneapolis, leaving the man severely disabled, possibly because the man had “beat up” Mr. Wright earlier that month. The lawsuit offers no direct evidence tying Mr. Wright to the shooting, which remains unsolved.
Katie Wright has called the claims in the lawsuit hurtful. “To run with allegations like that is pretty bad, whether they are true or not true,” she told The Star Tribune.
The judge overseeing the trial of Ms. Potter ruled that any “bad acts” committed by Mr. Wright could only be brought up during the trial if it was shown that Ms. Potter knew about the conduct at the time of the traffic stop, so the allegations in the lawsuit were not raised.
People who knew Mr. Wright have acknowledged that he made mistakes, but the said he was trying to improve his life for the sake of his son.
A friend, Emajay Driver, said that Mr. Wright had “loved to make people laugh.” As a freshman in high school, Mr. Wright had been voted a class clown. “There was never a dull moment,” Mr. Driver said.
Delivering a eulogy at Mr. Wright’s funeral, the Rev. Al Sharpton said he was told that Minneapolis had not seen a funeral procession so large since Prince, the musician who was born and raised in Minneapolis, died in 2016.
“You thought he was just some kid with an air freshener,” Mr. Sharpton said, referring to a reason the police cited for pulling him over, an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror. Mr. Sharpton added: “He was a prince, and all of Minneapolis has stopped today to honor the prince of Brooklyn Center.”
Who is Kimberly Potter?
A Minnesota jury is deliberating over whether to convict Kimberly Potter, a former police officer, on two felony manslaughter charges in connection with the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in April.
Prosecutors have charged Ms. Potter with first-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter. In order to convict Ms. Potter of the more serious charge, first-degree manslaughter, jurors need to find that she caused Mr. Wright’s death through reckless handling or use of a firearm. The standard sentence for that charge is roughly seven years in prison, though the maximum punishment is 15 years.
Last Updated on December 23, 2021 by 247 News Around The World
