Ex-Minnesota cop Kim Potter will be charged with manslaughter in fatal shooting of Daunte Wright

Kim Potter, the Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright, will be charged with second-degree manslaughter for his killing, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Potter resigned from the Brooklyn Center Police Department on Tuesday, along with that department’s chief, because of the controversial shooting Sunday of the 20-year-old Wright, who was Black.

Wright’s death, which occurred as he fled a police traffic stop, heightened tensions that were already high in and around Minneapolis due to the ongoing murder trial of another former police officer, Derek Chauvin, who is charged in last year’s killing of George Floyd, who was also Black.

Body camera video from Potter during the incident Sunday suggests that she believed she had pulled out a Taser, instead of a pistol, when she pointed it at Wright and fired after he twisted away from another officer who was trying to handcuff him next to his SUV.

Wright had been pulled over by police in Brooklyn Center having expired license plates and an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror.

Police then tried to arrest Wright after learning that he was wanted on an outstanding warrant for failing to appear in court in a criminal case, where he was charged with carrying a gun without a permit, as well as with fleeing from police in June.

The death of Floyd, at the hands of the white cop Chauvin ignited nationwide protests over police misconduct against minority suspects, and calls for major reform of policing practices.

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