Thursday, in Minneapolis, Kimberly Potter is found guilty of both charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Duante Wright.
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota police officer Kimberly Potter, faced first-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter charges for fatally shooting 20-year-old Duante Wright during a traffic-stop-turned-arrest, after repeatedly yelling “Taser” and failing to aid Wright after he was shot.
Wright’s death sparked days of protests in the Minneapolis suburb.
“No, mom should have to see that on video call … I know I hurt her by doing that.”
Potter’s case was heard in the same courtroom where Derek Chauvin was tried by much of the same prosecution team who deployed a similar playbook against Potter, including the extensive use of video and testimony from fellow police officers.
A medical examiner testified the single bullet had pierced Wright’s heart and lungs, killing him within seconds to minutes. Medical personnel could not revive him, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Prosecutors directly told the jury that they were not alleging Potter intentionally killed Wright. However, they did assert that Potter’s recklessness led to the fatal shooting and put others at the scene at risk, including her fellow officers and the female passenger Alayna Albrecht-Payton, 20, in Wright’s car, who recalled his death sobbing on the stand.
Albrecht-Payton told the jury that at the scene she answered a FaceTime call from Wright’s mother, Katie Bryant, who had been on the phone with Wright, and pointed the camera phone toward Wright’s lifeless body.
“I was just screaming, ‘They shot him! They shot him!’ And then I pointed the camera on him, and I’m so sorry I did that,” Albrecht-Payton said, her testimony almost unintelligible as she sobbed.
Albrecht-Payton, her voice shaking, said, “No, mom should have to see that on video call … I know I hurt her by doing that.”
Potter testified that she did not render aid after fatally shooting Daunte Wright during cross-examination.
She was asked to review video footage of the April incident, in which she said she mistakenly pulled her firearm instead of her Taser.
Potter’s defense is that the Taser she was carrying was a new model and had only been issued to her 17 days prior. Two days following the fatal shooting, Potter resigned from her position as a police officer.
Potter pleaded not guilty to all first and second-degree manslaughter charges. Now that she’s been convicted, she faces possibly 11-years in prison.
During two days of testimony in the defense portion of the trial, attorneys called eight witnesses, including the defendant.
The pool of 250 potential jurors filled out a questionnaire virtually identical to the survey sent to jurors in the Chauvin case. The questionnaire pressed them on whether they had participated in any social justice protests after George Floyd’s killing and their views on groups such as Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter.
The 12 jurors who deliberated included one black woman, six White men, three white women, and two Asian women.
The judge ordered that Kimberly Potter be immediately taken to jail, where she will be held without bail until a sentencing hearing.
Some of the reactions after the verdicts were announced, include the following:
“The death of#DaunteWright was not accidental – it was systemic,” Ohio state rep. Candidate Nina Turner said.
“Kim Potter was found GUILTY! May the Spirit of justice in the name of#DaunteWright lead us into the new year.#BlackLivesMatter
