Kim Potter Found Guilty of Manslaughter In Daunte White's Death
MINNEAPOLIS — The former police officer who said she mistook her gun for her Taser when she fatally shot a man during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb was convicted of two counts of manslaughter on Thursday, a rare guilty verdict for a police officer that is likely to send her to prison for years.
The jury deliberated across four days before agreeing on guilty verdicts for Kimberly Potter, a 49-year-old white woman who testified that she had never fired her gun in her 26 years on the police force in Brooklyn Center, Minn., until she shot a single bullet into the chest of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who had been driving to a carwash in April.
As the verdict was read, Ms. Potter remained stoic, looking briefly downward and then toward the jurors but never crying, as she had when she testified. Judge Regina Chu ordered that Ms. Potter be immediately sent to prison, and deputies led her out of the courtroom in handcuffs as one of her relatives shouted, "Love you, Kim!"
It is unusual for police officers to be convicted in accidental shootings, and jurors heard testimony from several current and former police officers — including two put on the stand by prosecutors — who said that Ms. Potter had been justified in trying to use her Taser, or even firing her gun.
Wright's mother and the attorney general of Minnesota gave remarks on the jury's decision to convict Ms. Potter on two counts of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Mr. Wright.
"The moment that we heard guilty on the manslaughter one, emotions, every single emotion that you could imagine just running through your body at that moment. I kind of let out a yelp because it was built up in the anticipation of what was to come while we were waiting for the last few days. And now we've been able to process it. We want to thank the entire prosecution team. We want to thank community support, everybody who's been out there that has supported us in this long fight for accountability."
"With the jury finding Kimberly Potter guilty today of manslaughter in the first degree, and manslaughter in the second degree in connection with Daunte's death, we have a degree of accountability for Daunte's death. Accountability is not justice, justice is restoration. Justice would be restoring Daunte to life and making the Wright family whole again. Justice is beyond the reach that we have in this life for Daunte. My thoughts are also with Ms. Potter today. She has gone from being an esteemed member of the community and honored member of a noble profession to being convicted of a serious crime. I don't wish that on anyone, but it would be — but it was our responsibility as the prosecution, as ministers of justice to pursue justice wherever it led, and the jury found the facts."
Daunte Wright's mother and the attorney general of Minnesota gave remarks on the jury's decision to convict Ms. Potter on two counts of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Mr. Wright. CreditCredit...Aaron Nesheim for The New York Times
Mr. Wright had been trying to flee from Ms. Potter and two other officers who were attempting to arrest him on a warrant. At trial, prosecutors conceded that the shooting was an accident, but they argued that Ms. Potter had been so reckless that she should be imprisoned.
Judge Chu will sentence Ms. Potter, who resigned two days after the shooting, at a hearing scheduled for February.
The standard sentence for the more serious charge, first-degree manslaughter, is a little more than seven years in prison, and the maximum penalty is 15 years.
Mr. Wright's parents let out cries in the courtroom as the guilty verdicts were read and later joined several dozen of Mr. Wright's supporters who celebrated outside of the courthouse in downtown Minneapolis..
The shooting took place during the trial of Derek Chauvin, the white former Minneapolis police officer who was ultimately convicted of murdering George Floyd, a Black man whose death led to a huge protest movement and heightened scrutiny of police killings. The Potter trial was seen by some as a test of whether juries were more likely to convict officers of crimes after the outcry over Mr. Floyd's death.
At a news conference after the verdict, Keith Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general whose office prosecuted the case, said he had long believed it would be difficult to win a conviction. Mr. Ellison said Ms. Potter had gone from being an "honored member of a noble profession to being convicted of a serious crime."
"I don't wish that on any one," he said.
Richard Frase, an emeritus law professor at the University of Minnesota, said the fact that Ms. Potter was charged and convicted was a sign that prosecutors and jurors were increasingly willing to punish police officers for killing people.
"Prosecutors have become more confident that they actually have a shot at getting a conviction," Mr. Frase said.
"The state did a pretty effective job of making its case."
In convicting Ms. Potter, jurors rejected the defense that she had been justified in firing her gun and found that she had knowingly taken a risk of seriously harming Mr. Wright, even if she mistakenly thought she was firing her Taser.
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