Kim Potter, the female ex-police officer who mistook her service pistol for a taser while attempting to subdue and arrest Daunte Wright near Minneapolis, Minnesota has herself been arrested after the accidental discharge left the man, who was wanted for at least two crimes and in the process of fleeing from police during a routine traffic stop, dead.
According to the Associated Press, “A prosecutor said Wednesday that he will charge a white former suburban Minneapolis police officer with second-degree manslaughter for killing 20-year-old Black motorist Daunte Wright in a shooting that ignited days of unrest and clashes between protesters and police.” They add, “Intent isn’t a necessary component of second-degree manslaughter in Minnesota. The charge — which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison — can be applied in circumstances where a person is suspected of causing a death by ‘culpable negligence’ that creates an unreasonable risk or consciously takes chances to cause the death of a person.”
The local police chief admitted that Potter was attempting to fire her taser at Wright, who was wanted for “attempted aggravated robbery charges, and reportedly repeatedly choked a woman at gunpoint in an effort to make her give him $820 in cash”. In body cam video of the botched arrest, Potter is heard verbally warning Wright that she would tase him, before shouting “Taser! Taser! Taser!” and firing her service pistol into the fugitive’s side, prompting her to react with shock.
MN police release bodycam footage of Daunte Wright being shot pic.twitter.com/Dl6VBKgNEj
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 12, 2021
As National File reported, the last video uploaded to Wright’s Instagram shows him “displaying a black handgun with silver trim in an Instagram video taken shortly before his death.”
According to police, during the alleged crime Wright was in the process of fleeing police during an arrest regarding, Wright was “walking the female victim to the door when he ‘pulled a black handgun with silver trim out from either his right waistband or his right coat pocket and pointed it at victim and demanded the rent money.'”
