Tag: Duante Wright

Officer Kim Potter resigns after fatally shooting Daunte Wright

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Kim Potter, identified as the officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a weekend traffic stop near Minneapolis, resigned from her position “effectively immediately,” Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott said in a statement Tuesday.

Background: Potter had been with the Brooklyn Center Police Department for 26 years, per the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. She shot and killed Wright during a traffic stop just before 2 p.m. Sunday in Brooklyn Center, Minn.

  • Police said Monday that Potter had inadvertently pulled out her gun instead of a Taser during the traffic stop. She was placed on administrative leave on Monday. Continue reading.

Chief: Officer meant to use Taser, not firearm, on Daunte Wright

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The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension identified the officer as Kimberly A. Potter, 48, who has been a police officer for 26 years. She has been put on leave. 

The traffic stop that would end Daunte Wright’s life played out on a Brooklyn Center police officer’s body camera. Officers appeared to try to handcuff him; then he slipped back into the driver’s seat.

A female officer yelled, “Taser, Taser,” and then fired her gun. “Holy shit, I just shot him,” she said.

Once again, a Black man died during a police encounter. In an instant, the world’s focus on Minnesota shifted from the trial of Derek Chauvin to a new outrage that brought street protests, promises of reform, and anguish over a relentless pattern of deadly police misconduct. Continue reading.

Brooklyn Center police fatally shoot man, 20, inflaming tensions during the Derek Chauvin trial

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Man, 20, killed after being pulled over for traffic violation in Brooklyn Center 

A Brooklyn Center police officer fatally shot a man during a traffic stop Sunday afternoon, inflaming already raw tensions between police and community members in the midst of the Derek Chauvin trial.

Relatives of Daunte Wright, 20, who is Black, told a tense crowd gathered at the scene in the northern Minneapolis suburb Sunday afternoon that Wright drove for a short distance after he was shot, crashed his car, and died at the scene.

Protesters later walked to the Brooklyn Center police headquarters near N. 67th Avenue and N. Humboldt Avenue and were locked in a standoff with police in riot gear late Sunday night. Officers repeatedly ordered the crowd of about 500 to disperse as protesters chanted Wright’s name and climbed atop the police headquarters sign, by then covered in graffiti. Police used tear gas, flash bangs and rubber bullets on the crowd. Continue reading.