Kim Potter, Tim Gannon Resign After Fatal Shooting Of Daunte Wright In Minnesota

New York Post ^ | 04.13.2021 | Jorge Fitz-Gibbon

[USA Conservative]

The Minnesota cop who shot and killed a black man after mistakenly grabbing her gun instead of her Taser resigned Tuesday, saying “it’s in the best interest of the community.”

News of Kimberly Potter’s resignation came as Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott announced that the city’s police chief, Tim Gannon, had also stepped down following the fatal incident.

“I have loved every minute of being a police officer and serving this community to the best of my ability,” Potter said in a statement, according to twincities.com.

“But I believe it is in the best interest of the community, the department, and my fellow officers if I resign immediately,” she wrote.

Elliott said the city council voted Monday to fire both Potter and Gannon in the wake of the incident that left Daunte Wright dead — with both then submitting resignations.

Gannon became combative with reporters and local activists at a press briefing on Monday, as he defended Potter.

The chief said the cop deserved due process — contradicting Elliott, who said then that “I do fully support releasing the officer from her duties.”

On Tuesday, the mayor appointed police Commander Tony Gruening to replace Gannon as acting chief.

“Obviously it’s been an eventful several hours for our city,” Elliott said at a press conference Tuesday. “We are still experiencing trauma from the events that unfolded that led to the killing of Daunte Wright.”

“I would hope that this would bring calm to the community,” he said.

Elliott said the council also “streamlined” the leadership of the department, putting him in command, and approved police reforms in the city.

[USA Conservative]

It’s a sad situation that this officer is forced to resign because she was upholding the law. The moment we make the criminals into the victims our criminal justice system becomes lawless. And we could have full anarchy. Is it sad that the young man died, yes? But why resist and run. Let me ask you this, say she lets him escape and he kills your family member trying to get away. Wouldn’t you hold the officer responsible for not trying to stop the criminal?

[twister881]

Neither the officer nor the police chief should have resigned. If the criminal scumbag had not resisted, he would be alive.

[chuckee]

I would give her due process. This is not so much about intentional use of excessive force, but unintentionally mistaking the gun in her hand with her taser. Quite honestly, if the person stopped was white, I believe he would be dead too because of her mistake. Race had nothing to do with it. Competence or the lack thereof did. I think competence may be the underlying question here and somewhere down the road that issue would have had to be addressed

[Cronos]

Resist and run does not give the cops the right to shoot and kill. If they were continuing to resist then a taser.

But running away - they should have given chase.

He wasn't stopped for murder. He was stopped for a traffic violation related to expired registration tags.

The officer should resign or be fired. Cops need to be trained better.

What about Daniel Shaver in 2017?

Shaver had been staying at a Mesa La Quinta Inn & Suites on business. When police arrived at the hotel, they ordered Shaver and Portillo to exit the room. Six officers in the hotel corridor pointed weapons at them and gave them orders for several minutes.

Police Sergeant Charles Langley then ordered Shaver, who was lying prone, to cross his legs. Moments later, he ordered Shaver to push himself "up to a kneeling position". While complying with the order to kneel, Shaver uncrossed his legs and Langley shouted that Shaver needed to keep his legs crossed. Startled, Shaver then put his hands behind his back and was again warned by Langley to keep his hands in the air. Langley yelled at Shaver that if he deviated from police instructions again, they would shoot him. Sergeant Langley told Shaver not to put his hands down for any reason. Shaver said, "Please don't shoot me". Upon being instructed to crawl, Shaver put his hands down and crawled on all fours. While crawling towards the officers, Shaver paused and moved his right hand towards his waistband. Officer Philip Brailsford, who later testified he believed that Shaver was reaching for a weapon, then opened fire with his AR-15 rifle, striking Shaver five times and killing him almost instantly. Shaver was unarmed and may have been attempting to prevent his shorts from slipping down

The cops murdered Daniel Shaver, while the cop in this case inadvertently killed Duante.

This is pathetic police training

[Cronos]

correct, race had nothing to do with it. I fail to see why she reached for her taser even. He was running away for a traffic violation. Either chase and catch him or let him go - they have the vehicle.

A taser would be acceptable if he was attacking them, which he wasn’t

[USS Alaska]

If the criminal scumbag had not resisted, he would be alive.

Sounds like Saint George Floyd.

I've watched a little of the defense on CSPAN-2, and the cop is innocent, but the jury will throw him under the bus.

Unless there is one or two jurors that are willing to enter the "juror protection program" change their names, homes, job, life style etc..." and maybe, he will get a hung jury.

[Shadylake]

This had nothing to do with training. I’m sick of hearing how ‘training’ can stop blatant idiocy or as in this case, flat out cold blooded murder.

[livius]

When they stop someone for expired tags or something g else, they run the driver’s ID and they found that he was out on $100,000 bail and had an open warrant for an armed robbery, committed only about a year earlier, that he had been found with a gun in his possession despite being prohibited from doing so by the court, and that he failed to show up for meetings with his court appointed supervising officer.

It wasn’t just a registration violation. The male cop couldn’t control him, and they had every reason to think he was going for a gun in his car.

[Alberta's Child]

The police chief resigned because the incompetence of a 26-year veteran in his department has become a colossal embarrassment.

If the officer’s explanation of what happened in this incident is accurate, then this was no different than a school bus driver who makes a wrong turn with a bus load of kids and ends up driving the wrong way down a crowded freeway.

[Paul R.]

Wrong. Wright was wanted for a recent attempted armed robbery, a subsequent firearms violation, and lesser violations. Officer Potter had evidently just learned that. Any officer letting a perp with a record like that dive back into his car would be near suicidal.

Now, that said, Potter clearly panicked (listen to her voice), adrenaline was likely sky high, training / screening probably a problem...

[Cronos]

Training, vetting, psychological testing, whatever. These bad cops smear the 96% to 98% of good cops

[T.B. Yoits]

The police chief resigned because the incompetence of a 26-year veteran in his department has become a colossal embarrassment.

True but his resignation may have been because he's been saying for 26 years that diversity and inclusion is a dangerous mix when it comes to reality in law enforcement. He may have more time in than he needs to retire and decided he wasn't going to get dragged into the circus and have his life ruined for something he's opposed for decades.

[Paul R.]

Agreed. However, the male officer for some reason partially released Wright and Potter certainly did not have a firm hold on Wright, nor, I suspect, could she be expected to keep such even if she had.

OTOH, do expired tags alone normally get you put against the side of the car with your hands held behind you? I don’t think so... This well before Potter said anything (at least that I heard) about arresting Wright. Something’s up with that, and, any way you look at it, multiple mistakes were made before Wright was back in the car and at that point potentially quite dangerous: I think that panicked Potter. Just listen to her voice.

[Fido969]

I’ve watched that carefully, and I think what happened was:

When the first cop went to cuff him, the driver grabbed his hands together and pushed them to his body, making it impossible to get the cuff on them.

After trying, the first cop pulled the cuffs back, try to get a better method.

The female cop saw that, and tried to pull the citizen’s arm away from his body to make it possible to get the cuffs on - and that is when the citizen tried to escape.

[glimmerman70]

It was a mistake but the guy was being resistant. And why does Gannon need to go. Also I have heard that there is complaints about the taser grip feeling like the glock grip. But she should know if she’s which she is grabbing. The family will sue.

[_longranger81]

” He was running away for a traffic violation. “

If I understand correctly, he was running away from an outstanding arrest warrant for possession of an unregistered firearm.

[twister881]

Yes, an unfortunate incident. It occurred in 2016, and the police officer was charged with and acquitted of murder and manslaughter in a 2017 trial.

A complicating factor was Shaver’s extreme intoxication and likely his confusion about the sharp and conflicting commands being issued. It was the movement of his hand to the waistband of his shorts that prompted the officer to fire.

I don’t defend the law enforcement officers involved in this case or the current one. My point is none of them should be pressured to resign unless and until due process and the rule of law are followed to a conclusion.

[DesertRhino]

He wasn’t a “citizen”.