The former Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright while yelling “Taser” during a traffic-stop-turned-arrest outside Minneapolis is expected to be sentenced Friday.
A Minnesota jury found Kim Potter, 49, guilty late last year of first- and second-degree manslaughter in the April shooting in Brooklyn Center.
The first-degree manslaughter charge carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and/or a $30,000 fine. The second-degree charge has a maximum sentence of 10 years and/or a $20,000 fine. Potter will only be sentenced on the most serious charge.
Family members of Wright, who was 20 years old, spoke at the sentencing.
“I will never be able to forgive you for what you’ve stolen from us,” Katie Wright, Daunte Wright’s mother, said before the court as she cried. “My life and my world will never, ever, be the same.”
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Wright said Potter “failed Daunte, our family and our community.” She noted Potter did not render aid to her son, whose car was held at gunpoint for more than five minutes as he bled out. “She didn’t try to save him. You should have done better,” Wright said.
Arbuey Wright, Daunte’s father, said his son was “every man’s dream.”
“I would watch Daunte as he slept for many years, thinking, wondering, how his future would be – what he would become,” Wright said, adding, “All we have is memories left of our son.”
Two of Wright’s siblings and Chyna Whitaker, the mother of Wright’s two-year-old son, Daunte Jr., also spoke. “Kim Potter took my son’s best friend away from him,” Whitaker said. “I am now a single mother, not by choice but by force.”
Potter, who had been with the police department for 26 years, faced Wright’s family as she spoke Friday. “I am so sorry that I brought the death of your son,” Potter said, adding, “Katie, I understand a mother’s love, and I am sorry I broke your heart. My heart is broken for all of you.”
For someone with no criminal history, the presumptive sentence for first-degree manslaughter in Minnesota is about six to eight-and-a-half years, according to state sentencing guidelines. Minnesota offenders typically serve two-thirds of their time in prison and one-third on supervised release, according to The Associated Press.
Defense attorneys filed a motion late last month asking the court to sentence Potter to probation instead of prison, based on her “exemplary career,” “crime-free life” and “evident contrition.” They also argued Wright is to blame for creating a situation where Potter needed to use force and said Potter “will be a walking target in prison.”
“This is beyond tragic for everyone involved,” defense attorney Paul Engh told the court Friday.
Engh said Potter “has enormous community support” and has received “thousands” of cards from supporters while in prison. He held up a cardboard box full of cards and a stack of letters submitted on Potter’s behalf and read from several of them, including some from Potter’s family.
Hennepin County District Court Judge Regina Chu said she also received “hundreds of hundreds” of letters.
‘SHE DID COMMIT A CRIME’:Juror says Kim Potter made a mistake but was still responsible
Prosecutors initially said there are “aggravating factors” at play in the case that merit harsher sentencing – that Potter’s actions endangered other people and she abused her position of authority as a police officer. But in a filing Tuesday, prosecutors said Potter’s presumptive sentence “reflects the seriousness of the loss of his life” and “could help the community heal.”
“This is a courtroom full of pain and anger,” prosecutor Matthew Frank said Friday morning, visibly emotional. “What can be done to help restore some of the faith and trust between law enforcement and the community?”
Potter, who is white, fatally shot Wright, a Black man, on April 11. She and a trainee officer said they pulled Wright’s vehicle over that day because he had a blinker on in the wrong turn lane, expired tabs and an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror.
The officers discovered Wright had a warrant for arrest on a weapons violation and an order of protection against him, and they attempted to detain him. During the struggle, Potter shot Wright, who drove down the street and crashed into an oncoming vehicle, injuring the passenger in his car as well as two others.
At trial, defense attorneys argued Potter mistook her firearm for a Taser but was justified in using deadly force to prevent another officer from being injured. Potter testified at the trial and said she was “sorry” and “didn’t want to hurt anybody.”
Prosecutors said Potter recklessly handled her firearm and caused Wright’s death through her “culpable negligence” – a conscious and disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk.
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Potter has been in state prison since the conviction nearly two months ago. A predominantly white jury deliberated for more than 27 hours in the case.
One juror who spoke anonymously to KARE-TV following the verdict said: “We felt like she was a good person, we felt she made a mistake, and that a mistake does not absolve you from the fact she did commit a crime.”
Potter has been segregated from the rest of the prison population and hasn’t had contact with other incarcerated women, said Sarah Fitzgerald, spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Corrections.
