Former police officer Kim Potter broke down in court Friday as she recounted when she shot and killed Daunte Wright, a black teen, during a traffic stop in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Potter was mentoring a probationary officer on April 11 when they stopped Wright in Brooklyn Center over expired tags on the vehicle he was driving. The officers discovered that Wright had a warrant out for his arrest on a gun charge after running his information through law enforcement databases.
Acting on the warrant, Potter and the police trainee, Officer Anthony Luckey, moved to detain Wright with assistance from police Sgt. Mychal Johnson. Wright resisted officers, got back in the vehicle, and fought with Johnson over the gear shift, according to Potter’s testimony. She then said she mistakenly shot Wright with her firearm while thinking she held her taser. Potter testified:
I remember a struggle with officer Luckey and the driver at the door. The driver was trying to get back into the car. … I went around officer Luckey as they were trying to get back in the door, in between the door and officer Luckey and the driver, and the driver is getting into the car. … They’re still struggling and I can see Sergeant Johnson and the driver struggling over the gear shift because I can see Johnson’s hand, and then I can see his face. … He had a look of fear on his face. It’s nothing I’d seen before. … We were struggling. We were trying to keep him from driving away. It just went chaotic. And then I remember yelling ‘Taser! Taser! Taser!’ and nothing happened and then he told me I shot him.
Cathy Russon on Twitter: “#KimPotterTrial – Potter starts to cry about Johnson, “He had a look of fear on his face…” “It just went chaotic…and then I remember yelling Taser! Taser! Taser!..” Potter starts to cry and says, “..and then he told me I shot him!” #DaunteWright @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/QEfvgkoxFS / Twitter”
KimPotterTrial – Potter starts to cry about Johnson, “He had a look of fear on his face…” “It just went chaotic…and then I remember yelling Taser! Taser! Taser!..” Potter starts to cry and says, “..and then he told me I shot him!” #DaunteWright @LawCrimeNetwork pic.twitter.com/QEfvgkoxFS
