[ad_1]<\/p>\n
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Closing arguments are set for Monday in the manslaughter trial of\u00a0the former Minnesota police officer\u00a0<\/a>who says she meant to use her Taser instead of her gun when she shot and killed\u00a0Daunte Wright<\/a>\u00a0as he tried to drive away from a traffic stop.<\/p>\n Kim Potter\u2019s case will go to\u00a0the mostly white jury<\/a>\u00a0after Judge Regina Chu gives them final instructions. The judge has already told jurors that she will not make them deliberate on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. They\u2019ll return after the holiday if they haven\u2019t reached a verdict by then.<\/p>\n The defense rested Friday after\u00a0Potter told jurors that she \u201cdidn\u2019t want to hurt anybody,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0saying during her sometimes tearful testimony that she shouted a warning about\u00a0using her Taser<\/a>\u00a0on Wright after she saw fear in a fellow officer\u2019s face.<\/p>\n Potter, 49, testified that she was \u201csorry it happened.\u201d She said she didn\u2019t remember what she said or everything that happened after the shooting, saying much of her memory of those moments \u201cis missing.\u201d<\/p>\n Potter is charged with first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11 death of Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist who was pulled over in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center for having expired license tags and\u00a0an air freshener hanging<\/a>\u00a0from his rearview mirror.<\/p>\n Potter, who was training another officer at the time, said she probably wouldn\u2019t have pulled Wright\u2019s car over if she had been on her own that day. After that initial encounter, the traffic stop \u201cjust went chaotic,\u201d she testified.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember yelling, \u2018Taser, Taser, Taser,\u2019 and nothing happened, and then he told me I shot him,\u201d Potter, who is white, said through tears. Her\u00a0body camera recorded Wright\u00a0<\/a>saying, \u201cAh, he shot me,\u201d after the shooting.<\/p>\n Potter\u2019s attorneys argued that she made a mistake but also\u00a0would have been justified in using\u00a0<\/a>deadly force if she had meant to because Sgt. Mychal Johnson was at risk of being dragged by Wright\u2019s car.<\/p>\n During cross-examination, prosecutor Erin Eldridge noted that Potter told a defense expert that she didn\u2019t know why she drew her Taser. Quoting from the expert\u2019s report, Eldridge said Potter told him: \u201cI don\u2019t have an answer, my brain said grab the Taser.\u201d Potter testified she didn\u2019t recall saying that.<\/p>\n Prosecutors have argued that Potter had extensive training about Taser use and in use of deadly force, including warnings about confusing the two weapons. Eldridge got Potter to agree that her use-of-force training was a \u201ckey component\u201d of being an officer. Potter testified that she was trained on when to use force and how much to use, and that there was a department policy that dictated what officers could or could not do.<\/p>\n Wright\u2019s death set off angry demonstrations for several days in Brooklyn Center. It happened as another white officer, Derek Chauvin, was standing trial in nearby Minneapolis for the\u00a0killing of George Floyd.<\/a><\/p>\n Before Potter took the stand, a defense witness testified that police officers can mistakenly draw their guns instead of their Tasers under high-stress situations because their ingrained training takes over.<\/p>\n Laurence Miller, a psychologist who teaches at Florida Atlantic University, said that the more someone repeats the same act, the less they have to think about it and there can be circumstances during a stressful situation in which someone\u2019s normal reactions may be \u201chijacked.\u201d<\/p>\n Some experts are skeptical of the theory. Geoffrey Alpert, a criminology professor at the University of South Carolina who is not involved in Potter\u2019s trial,\u00a0has said there\u2019s no science behind it.<\/a><\/p>\n State sentencing guidelines call for just over seven years in prison upon conviction of first-degree manslaughter and four years for second-degree, though prosecutors have said they plan to push for longer sentences.<\/p>\n Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/em><\/p>\n