Daunte Wright news: Kim Potter flees home as unrest expected ahead of charging decision Wednesday
Updates from Minnesota following protests overnight
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Your support makes all the difference.Officer Kim Potterreportedly fled her home after her address was posted to social media, while the mayor of Brooklyn Centre warned of "outside elements" planning to turn peaceful protests into "mayhem".
After 40 people were arrested on Monday night, mayor Mike Elliott asked protesters to go home peacefully before the city’s curfew on Tuesday.
Police fired tear gas at protesters gathered outside the Brooklyn Centre, Minnesota police precinct, in reaction to the death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright who was fatally shot by an officer over the weekend
Mr Elliott said there were plans among some “outside elements” plans to turn peaceful protests into “mayhem”.
“Daunte Wright’s death will not be exploited,” he said in a tweet.
“Some outside elements may be planning to show up to infiltrate peaceful protesters and cause mayhem, we will not allow that.”
Both Ms Potter and the police chief who called the shooting an "accidental discharge" resigned from the police department ahead of a charging decision expected to come on Wednesday.
In an emotional press conference, the mother of Daunte Wright described her son’s final moments as she revealed some of his last words to police before he was shot and killed in a traffic stop.
“Am I in trouble?” she heard her son ask police officers before they “scuffled” and the phone call ended.
She was joined by family members of George Floyd, who are currently awaiting the outcome in the trial of Derek Chauvin.
The defence witnesses began delivering testimony this week, with their use of force expert Barry Brood claiming the ex-officer was "justified" in attempting to arrest Mr Floyd.
“I felt that office Chauvin’s interactions with Mr Floyd were following his training, following current practices in policing, and were objectively reasonable,” he said.
Check out The Independent’s updates and analysis below.
Trial plays body camera footage from fifth officer of George Floyd arrest
Jurors are now watching body camera footage from the fifth officer on the scene of George Floyd’s fatal arrest, Minneapolis park police officer Peter Chang.
He arrived after police had taken Mr Floyd out of his car and were questioning him on the sidewalk.
Officer Chang waited a ways away with Mr Floyd’s car while the four other officers, including Derek Chauvin, struggled to get Mr Floyd into a police car across the street.
‘They did something to him’: Body camera footage shows friends watch George Floyd’s fatal arrest
Body camera footage from Peter Chang, a Minneapolis park police officer who was on the scene of George Floyd’ s fatal arrest, shows the moment when Mr Floyd’s friends realized something was wrong.
“They did something to him,” Shawanda Hill, who was in Mr Floyd’s car before his arrest, can be heard saying. “Can I just see what y’all did to him? He’s on the ground and everything.”
Brooklyn Center Mayor calls for officer who shot Daunte Wright to be fired
The officer who shot Daunte Wright should be fired, Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott to CBS This Morning on Monday.
“If you kill someone in any other line of work, you are at the very least going to lose your job,” he said.
Officer Kim Potter, who had more than 20 years on the force and trained other officers, shot Mr Wright on Sunday during a traffic stop with her pistol, believing she was about to use her Taser.
Mr Wright’s death has inspired massive protests throughout the Twin Cities, and comes as the Chauvin trial heads towards its conclusion.
Nicole Mackenzie is back on the stand
Nicole Mackenzie, a former EMT and the medical support coordinator for the Minneapolis Police Department, is back on the stand.
She previously testified about the medical training officers receive, including how officers should know that just because someone is breathing, it doesn’t mean they aren’t also in respiratory distress.
The defence has called her back to talk about officers’ training around “excited delirium,” a medically disputed condition some officers believe describes a combination of psychosis and other symptoms.
People experiencing excited delirium, Ms Mackenzie previously testified, can have “superhuman” strength, prompting officers to worry or use force.
Those experiencing the condition are also at high risk of cardiac arrest and should be put in a sideways “recovery position” and potentially given CPR if necessary, she added on Tuesday.
As police handcuffed George Floyd face-down on the ground and pushed him into the pavement with their knees, one of the officers, Thomas Lane, asked Derek Chauvin if they should roll Mr Floyd over because of “excited delirium or whatever.”
Mr Chauvin responds that they have an ambulance coming.
Kim Potter: Officer who shot Daunte Wright resigns, saying it’s in ‘best interest of the community’
The officer who on Sunday fatally shot Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, has resigned.
“I have loved every minute of being a police officer and serving this community to the best of my ability, but I believe it is in the best interest of the community, the department, and my fellow officers if I resign immediately,” Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter wrote in a letter to city officials, theSt Paul Pioneer Press reported on Tuesday.
Ms Potter killed Mr Wright on Sunday during a traffic stop, shooting him with her pistol after he struggled with officers. Police body camera video indicates she believed she was holding her Taser stun gun, not her service weapon.
The killing sparked massive protests across the Minneapolis area on Sunday and Monday, even as local officials tried to impose curfews on Monday night. I’m following the details here.
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Kim Potter: Officer who shot Daunte Wright resigns
‘Unbelievable’: Families of Daunte Wright and George Floyd rally outside of courthouse
“It is unbelievable,” Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing both families, said on Tuesday during a press conference. “It is just something I could not fathom, that in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a suburb, ten miles from where the Chauvin trial in regard to George floyd was taking place, that a police officer would shoot and kill another unarmed black man.”
Relative of Emmett Till speaks alongside Floyd and Wright families
A relative of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, is among those joining the families of George Floyd of Daunte Wright outside the Hennepin County courthouse on Tuesday.
“The past is not past until justice is served,” she said. “We are tired and exhausted of the terrorism that has been brought against our families across this country. I would only say to the families, to the the Wright families and all the other families that’re represented, we are going to continue to stand up.”
Chief of police department behind Daunte Wright shooting resigns
The mayor of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, Mike Elliot, said the police department’s chief, Tim Gannon, has resigned.
Mr Gannon’s resignation comes on the heels of the resignation of Officer Kim Potter, who shot Daunte Wright, claiming he did so accidentally.
Barry Brodd, police trainer, is next witness
Barry Brodd, a retired police officer and use of force trainer, is the next witness to take the stand in the Derek Chauvin trial.
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