Kim Potter testifies about shooting Daunte Wright, pointing finger at Anthony Luckey

Kim Potter, a white former Minneapolis suburban police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright in April after allegedly mistaking her handgun for a Taser during a traffic stop, testified in her own defense. me on Friday.

Potter, a 49-year-old who resigned from Central Brooklyn, Minnesota, charged with the murder of a 20-year-old black man after 26 years in the job, is facing first- and first-degree manslaughter charges two. She pleaded not guilty.

While on site, Potter stated that she “most likely wouldn’t” stop Wright because of supposedly expired tabs and an air freshener on April 11, but the field staff she did accompanying did so as part of his training.

“Officer [Anthony] Luckey wanted to stop the car,” Potter said Friday, insisting that if she had been alone that day, she wouldn’t have done so. She attributes one reason for that to that the ongoing pandemic has made it difficult for some drivers to update their vehicle tags, and officers sympathize with that.

Potter then went on to describe what she described as a frenzied situation that ended with her shooting Wright with her shotgun instead of her Taser.

“We tried to keep him from driving away. It’s all going to be chaotic,” Potter said through tears. “I remember shouting ‘Taser! Electric gun! Electric gun!’ and nothing happens, and then [Luckey] told me I shot him. ”

The former police officer added that the next thing she remembers was an ambulance coming to pick her up and eventually heading back to the police station.

Potter said in tears that she “quit” her job a few days after the shooting and ended up moving out of state. The former police officer said she was immediately concerned for her law enforcement colleagues after the shooting, which occurred in the midst of the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who murdered George Floyd last year. last year and caused many protests.

“Have a lot of [sic] Potter said.

During the week-long trial, prosecutors presented more than two dozen witnesses in an attempt to prove Potter was criminally negligent in the April 11 incident. To substantiate the manslaughter charges In the first degree under Minnesota law, prosecutors need to convince jurors that Potter caused Wright’s death by “recklessly handling or using a firearm to endanger the safety of others. by force and violence to the point of death or reasonably foreseeable bodily harm to any person. “

To prove the second-degree charge, prosecutors need to prove that Potter “caused an unwarranted risk” by using a firearm.

“The use of deadly force is inappropriate, and the evidence suggests that a reasonable officer in Officer Potter’s position cannot believe that it was proportional to the threat at the time,” said deputy. Professor Seth Stoughton of the University of South Carolina Law School told the jury. on Wednesday, labeling the former officer’s actions “excessive and inappropriate.”

However, Potter’s security team insisted that Wright resisted arrest and used force.

Among Potter’s defenders this week is her former Brooklyn Center police chief, Tim Gannon, who resigned with her the day before her arrest after publicly insisting the incident was justifiable. In the stands, Gannon doubled down on the analysis, claiming that he concluded there was “no violation of…police, procedure, law” after reviewing Potter’s camera footage.

Officer Luckey told the jury last week that he and Potter, his field training officer, pulled Wright over to retrieve expired car tabs and an air freshener that afternoon. April 11. After performing a file check, Luckey said, he discovered the man had a striking feature. subpoenaed him and asked him to get out of the car.

“The plan is for Police Luckey to arrest the driver on command, and we will investigate further with the woman,” Potter said, referring to Wright’s girlfriend who was in the car at the time.

Body-cam footage shows Wright getting out of the car, then jumping inside before Luckey can handcuff him. Potter told jurors that while trying to make an arrest, Luckey began telling Wright “Don’t do it, don’t stress, don’t do that” before the situation was resolved.

In court footage, Potter is then seen grabbing her shotgun with her right hand before pointing it at Wright and shouting about Taser.

About a second later, Potter fired a single shot to Wright’s left side. The criminal complaint against her says that Wright cried out in pain before his car sped off several miles and eventually crashed into another vehicle.

“Oh my God!” Potter was told about Luckey in body-cam footage that was broadcast to the jurors. “Damn it! I just shot him! In another clip that was played in court, Potter could be seen sobbing on the ground, insisting she had no idea what she had done.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said Wright died of the shot and his death was homicide. After the incident, a Minnesota Department of Public Safety investigator checked Potter’s belt and concluded that her pistol was on the right side and her Taser on the left.

Prosecutors argued to jurors that Potter knew that the gun was in her right-hand side and her Taser was on her left – and had recklessly mishandled it during the arrest. Wright.

“We believe [police officers] to know wrong from right, and left from right,” Assistant Minnesota Attorney General Erin Eldridge said last Wednesday.