The officer pleaded to have confused his gun with his Taser during the questioning of a young African American 20 years. She faces a maximum sentence of twenty-five years in prison, and should be attached to his fate in February.
Le Monde with AFP
After three days of deliberations, the jury of a court in Minneapolis (Minnesota) was convicted of manslaughter Thursday, December 23, an American police officer who killed a young African-American driver during a road check in April.
Kim Potter, 49, has always said he believed draw his Taser when she actually pulled out his service revolver and shot Daunte Wright, 20, who resisted arrest in Brooklyn Center, in north of the United States.
The former police, who pleaded not guilty, did not respond Thursday during the verdict. She faces a maximum sentence of twenty-five years in prison in total and should be attached to his fate in February.
“It became chaos”
“His remorse and regret for this incident are overwhelming,” said his lawyer Paul Engh after the verdict, asking the judge to release her on bail. “It is in no way a danger to the public,” he said.
On April 11, 2021, police patrol with a colleague who had decided to control the driver of a white Buick having committed a minor traffic offense. After realizing that he was covered by a warrant, they wanted to arrest him. Police described the situation of that day as “unsafe”. Daunte Wright, who was unarmed, had not left handcuffed and had restarted his car to escape. Kim Potter had then pulled out his gun, then saying he believed seize his stun gun.
“We fought to prevent his escape and then it became chaos. I remember shouting” Taser, Taser, Taser “and nothing happens. And [my colleague] told me that I shot him, “she told the bar on Friday before bursting into tears
an experience of 26 years
His lawyer pleaded human error and the effect of stress as it tried by him to protect his colleague. But the prosecutor, Erin Eldridge, Daunte Wright died because of careless handling of a weapon and neglect of an officer who had yet twenty-six years of experience.
In a statement to US media, the family of the victim has expressed Thursday “relieved” that “the accounts have been made to this death absurd.” The day of the death of Daunte Wright “will remain a trauma for his family and a new example for why America for which we desperately need to change police practices,” wrote his relatives. When the verdict was read, his mother, Katie Wright, felt “every emotion you can imagine.”
“Accountability, it is not justice,” however, has qualified for the end of the hearing the Attorney General of the State of Minnesota, Keith Ellison, a Democrat. “Justice, it would make life Daunte and make the Wright family again complete. Justice is out of reach,” he regretted.
The death of the young man had moved including the United States because it had occurred in the middle of the trial of police officer Derek White Chauvin who in May 2020 in Minneapolis, killed the black forties George Floyd. enamelled violence rallies took place several nights in a row in Brooklyn Center before the arrest of Kim Potter restores calm.