Kim Potter trial: Ex-officer could face 25 years in jail after guilty verdict for killing Daunte Wright
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After three-and-a-half days of deliberation, the jury has reached a decision in the case of Kim Potter, a white former Minneapolis-area police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist.
Potter was found guilty on both charges of manslaughter she was facing for mistakenly grabbing her gun instead of her Taser before pulling the trigger during an April 2021 traffic stop with Mr Wright. She had pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charges against her.
The case was seen by many as a test of whether the justice system will hold police accused of excessive force accountable.
Mr Wright’s killing occurred in April while another white officer, former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin, was on trial for the murder of George Floyd just miles away. The shooting set off another round of large-scale civil rights protests in the Twin Cities, after a summer of unrest in 2020.
Police killings of Daunte Wright and others haven’t turned into big changes yet in Minneapolis
Police killing Black men in Minneapolis has inspired nationwide protests, but so far it hasn’t turned into the kind of sweeping reforms many activists in the streets are pushing for.
This November, voters in Minneapolis rejected a proposal that would have radically restructured the city’s police department and replaced it with a new, non-violence focused public safety agency.
Read our dispatch on the vote here.
Minneapolis voters reject proposal to defund police after George Floyd murder
The shows the city’s on policing after the 2020 murder of George Floyd, which touched off national civil rights protests
Not to be forgotten: Daunte Wright was pulled over for a traffic violation
Daunte Wright’s death inspired large protests and discussions around Minneapolis and the country about race and policing in America.
It’s worth remembering, however, that despite this impact, his lethal interaction with police began on extremely mundane terms, and could’ve stayed that way.
Officers pulled Mr Wright, 20, over in April for minor traffic violations: an air freshener hanging from his mirror, and expired license tags, which one of the arresting officers during the Kim Potter trial acknowledged may have been the result of Covid-delays at the DMV.
From there, police noticed Mr Wright had an outstanding warrant for a misdemeanor weapons charge, and three officers surrounded his car, before he was shot at close range while trying to flee.
As PBS anchor Yamiche Alcindor put it: “Let’s never forget sadly that Daunte Wright was initially pulled over for an air freshener hanging on his rear view mirror, a simple traffic code violation,”
George Floyd was also stopped by police for a minor infraction, using an allegedly counterfeit 20 bill.
What do the stats say about police bias in the Twin Cities?
The killing of Daunte Wright occurred as part of what community members, and statistics, say is a larger problem of police violence against people of colour in the Twin Cities and surrounding communities.
Here’s a look from earlier this year at what the stats say about who gets hit with excessive force in Minneapolis, and who gets held accountable.
Here’s how unequal policing really is in Minneapolis, by the numbers
City’s policing problems go much deeper than one officer