Posted on 04/14/2021 12:24:50 PM PDT by Red Badger
The former police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright, sparking riots and looting in multiple cities across the nation, was arrested Wednesday and charged with second degree manslaughter.
Kim Potter, 48, can be seen in bodycam footage drawing her firearm and screaming “taser, taser, taser” before firing a single bullet into Wright. He drove off but crashed his vehicle shortly after. According to CNBC:
Kim Potter, the Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright, was arrested Wednesday morning on a charge of second-degree manslaughter, authorities said. Potter’s arrest came a day after she resigned from the Brooklyn Center Police Department and three days after her shooting of the 20-year-old Black man
Wright’s death, which occurred as he fled a police traffic stop, heightened already-high tensions in and around Minneapolis due to the murder trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin for last year’s killing of George Floyd.
Body camera video footage from Potter during Sunday’s confrontation suggests she believed she had pulled out a Taser when she pointed the weapon at Wright and fired after he twisted away from another officer who was trying to handcuff him next to his SUV.
She was arrested Wednesday morning at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Authorities said she would be booked into the Hennepin County Jail, and that the Washington County prosecutor’s office would file charges later Wednesday.
Authorities said that the investigation of the shooting remains active.
Potter, who served 26 years on the Brooklyn Center force and previously was president of its police union, has retained a defense attorney, Earl Gray, according to the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association. Gray did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gray is also representing former Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane, one of two other ex-officers scheduled to be tried separately from Chauvin on lesser charges related to the death of Floyd, who like Wright was black.
Riots have sprung forth around the country for the three nights since the incident. Tensions are high, particularly in the Minneapolis area, as the trial of Derek Chauvin continues. Chauvin was seen last year on bodycam footage kneeling on the neck area of George Floyd before he died. Like Wright, Floyd was resisting arrest.
Meanwhile, the Capitol police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt will not face charges. That officer’s name has not been released.
Will the arrest and charges cool tensions between Black Lives Matter supporters and law enforcement? The city of Brooklyn Center and the rest of the nation wait to see the response tonight and this weekend
Minnesota Statutes 609.19 – Murder in the Second Degree
(1) causes the death of a human being with intent to effect the death of that person or another, but without premeditation
I tend to agree with you.
She’s charged with 2nd degree manslaughter not murder
Justice for Ashli
Being a city cop has got to be the WORST job in the world.
Its different in our town. Low crime rate, cops grew up here. No gangstas, no rabid leftist politicians, no racial ideology. They deal mostly with old people falling in their homes and DWI on the local highway.
If anyone of us accidently pulled a gun instead of a taser and shot someone we’d get worse charges. The police can’t be given a pass for such “mistakes”. Too bad it had to happen in this national atmosphere, though.
609.205 MANSLAUGHTER IN THE SECOND DEGREE.
A person who causes the death of another by any of the following means is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than ten years or to payment of a fine of not more than $20,000, or both:
(1) by the person’s culpable negligence whereby the person creates an unreasonable risk, and consciously takes chances of causing death or great bodily harm to another; or
She thought he was a deer. :O
Agreed. I am pro-cop, but this officerette was beyond negligent. Unfortunately I will be attacked by Freepers that think it’s hard for police to distinguish between a taser and a 9mm.
Liberals, Antifa, BLM, Media and all Democrats see this as a racial issue. White cop out to kill Black “good person who is getting their life turned around” and poor Black person instinctively if frightened of the police.
The fact that this guy did forcibly resist and escalated the situation when he could have followed orders and would be alive today. An officer who has been enforcing the law for 26 years probably has a very good idea of when situations can get dangerous. I think that she did what she was trained to do but as happens under stress made a mistake - albeit a fatal mistake. Looks like another $27 million check to some family in Minnesota.
MEANWHILE-—the killer of Ashli Babbitt isn’t even Identified.
I realize in that situation everything is happening super fast. Gotta say though, how do you pull your service weapon and mistake it for a taser?
Officers carry the taser on the opposite hip from their service weapon. Furthermore, every taser I've seen on a cops belt was bright yellow in color.
Being a concealed carrier, when I pull my firearm from it's holster, it has a unique feel. I just don't know how she could have mistaken the service weapon for the taser.
It's obvious she did and I don't think she intended to shoot the guy.
Opposite side of the coin. Ol Daunte wasn't the innocent lil chitlen the media is betraying. Watched NBC news last evening and it just pissed me off. Just like when they portrayed Travon Martin as this cute lil kid, when in reality he was doing the whole gangsta thang. So too was Daunte. A video out there proves it. Holding a gun, stack of $$cash$$, dancing while smoking a joint and at one point holding a bottle of Hennesey brandy.
If only he'd complied.
I agree with keeping police accountable. But this guy struggled a bit and tried to get away before he got shot.
Seems like to me, she was a Union leader for most of her career, decided to do some patrol time to get some street cred, didn’t know her taser from a 9mm, and did something stupid. Probably totally supports all the stupid stuff that Democrats are doing.
She shot at an person fleeing, which in many places is not allowed, she didn’t know the weapon in her hand, a sin for anyone carrying. She did hit her target, but I’m not sure that will win any kudos here.
The look on her face shows that she understands just what kind of personal hell she is in for. I do not envy her that.
The worst she deserves is to be fired.
Why would anyone want to be a police officer in a big city hellhole?
Good grief. I wouldn't put myself in a situation where I resisted arrested, flee police and lead them on a high speed chase. You left that part out.
We're making impossible for police to do their jobs. And, the crime rate is going to continue to explode.
I’ve heard that some big city cops are actively seeking out jobs in places such as your home town. Being a big city cop is really a thankless job nowadays.
So she should get a pass?
“Taser, taser, taser!”
BLAM!
Chewbacca defense time?
Yes I looked up murder, thanks for the correction. Even the definition of Manslaughter is a crazy charge to use against a police officer in this situation.
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