On April 11, 2021, 20-year-old Daunte Wright was stopped by police while driving in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to police Wright was wanted and it was decided to arrest him on the spot, but he is said to have opposed the arrest.
It all ended fatally. The man was shot by a police officer and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Kim Potter, the police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright, believes she thought she picked up an electroshock weapon, and not a firearm.
The witness in the trial:
During the trial on Friday, 49-year-old Kim Potter gave his first testimony in the case.
– WITNESS: Former police officer Kim Potter testified during the trial on Friday. This is her first public statement in the aftermath of the incident that occurred in April 2021. Photo: HANDOUT / REUTERS
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Potter burst into tears as she recounted what happened during the tragic April incident.
– We tried to prevent him from driving away, and then it just got chaotic. I remember shouting “teaser, teaser, teaser”, and nothing happened. And then he shouted that I had shot him, says former police officer Kim Potter in his first public statement after the incident.
According to the newspaper The Washington Post, she refrained from using Wright’s name during the testimony. Potter referred to the 20-year-old as “the driver”.
Recorded on film
The incident that happened in April 2021 was filmed by a body camera that Potter was wearing during the episode. In the video you can hear a desperate Potter say:
– I shot him, I took the wrong gun! My God, she says in the video.
The video has been played several times, including during the trial on Friday.
– I’m sorry it happened, I’m so sorry. I did not mean to hurt anyone, Potter said crying after the clip was finished.
– DESPAIR: In this photo, which is taken from a video that recorded the tragic incident in April, one sees a desperate Kim Potter sinking down the curb after Daunte Wright had been shot and killed. Photo: Court TV / AP
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Under training
Kim Potter is charged with first and second degree murder in the murder of Wright. Prosecutors say Wright was stopped by police because he had invalid license plates on the car and a Wunderbaum hanging in the rearview mirror.
Potter was driving with another police officer that day, who was currently undergoing training. During the trial on Friday, Potter says she would not have waved Wright in if she was alone in the car. According to her, it was the other police officer who wanted to stop Wright’s car.
When they discovered that Wright had an outstanding arrest warrant for a felony, they tried to arrest him.
– BIG DIFFERENCES: This picture, which was presented during the trial on December 8, 2021, explains the most obvious differences between a firearm and an electroshock weapon. Photo: AP
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While the other police officer tried to handcuff Wright, Potter pulled out his firearm and threatened to give Wright an electric shock. Then she fired one shot and hit Wright in the chest.
Delayed medical assistance
After Wright was shot, he drove his car a short distance down the street before finally crashing. Medical personnel at the scene were unable to revive him, and the 20-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.
Prosecutors say Potter did not do enough to help Wright. The police officer charged with murder must not have called for medical help or informed other police officers on the spot about what had happened.
This is said to have contributed to delaying medical assistance, as well as causing further chaos on the spot.
Potter believes that she does not remember any of what happened after Wright was shot, and thus could not defend the choices she made after the incident, her defense attorney says.
– Betrayed his profession
On an earlier occasion, the prosecutor in the case, Erin Eldridge, said that Potter had underestimated the extensive training she had undergone to become a police officer – including training on the risks of firing shots.
– This is exactly what she has been trained in for years. On April 11, she betrayed her profession, and failed Daunte Wright, Prosecutor said.
– We must be able to trust that they know the difference between right and left. This case is about a police officer who knew she was not going to make a mistake, but failed to do it right, the prosecutor continued.
Does not mean she acted wrong
Former Brooklyn Center Police Chief Timothy Gannon testified at the trial Thursday. Gannon resigned after the Wright shooting. He himself believes that he was forced out of the job because he refused to fire the former police officer immediately.
Gannon described Potter as a great officer, and that she had not acted wrongly during the incident. The former police chief went through the video from Potter’s body camera in the hours after the murder.
“I saw no violation of either policy, procedure or law,” Gannon said on Thursday.
– REACTIONS: The murder of Daunte Wright has created strong reactions over a long period of time. The killing is one of several cases in which dark-skinned people are shot by white police in the United States. Photo: Christian Monterrosa / AP
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Weapon confusion among police
Laurence Miller, a psychologist who specializes in police psychology, testified at the trial on Friday. During the trial, Miller stated that almost everyone indulged in human error at times, and defended Potter’s wrongdoing.
Miller, who has studied questions about gun confusion among police officers, testified that a high degree of stress can trigger errors of action, as well as blocking memories of such incidents.
Miller, on the other hand, emphasizes that a police officer must be trained in dealing with stress in the face of potentially dangerous situations.
During Potter’s testimony Friday, Potter acknowledged that the dangers of confusing an electroshock weapon and a gun had been mentioned during her training, but that they had not been physically trained in what to do.
The trial will resume on Monday. Kim Potter risks at least eleven years in prison if convicted. The prosecuting authorities have filed a claim for a more severe punishment if she is convicted.
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