{"id":27034,"date":"2021-12-23T23:22:11","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T23:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/23\/kim-potter-found-guilty-of-manslaughter-live-updates\/"},"modified":"2021-12-23T23:22:11","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T23:22:11","slug":"kim-potter-found-guilty-of-manslaughter-live-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/23\/kim-potter-found-guilty-of-manslaughter-live-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"Kim Potter Found Guilty of Manslaughter: Live Updates"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ad_1]<\/p>\n

MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 The former police officer who fatally shot a man in a Minneapolis suburb after seeming to mistake her gun for her Taser was convicted of two counts of manslaughter on Thursday, a rare guilty verdict for a police officer that is likely to send her to prison for years.<\/p>\n

The jury deliberated across four days before agreeing on guilty verdicts for Kimberly Potter, a 49-year-old white woman who testified that she had never fired her gun on the police force in Brooklyn Center, Minn., until she shot a single bullet into the chest of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who had been driving to a carwash in April.<\/p>\n

\n
Kimberly Potter and her lawyers reacting after the verdict was read on Thursday.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Court TV, via Associated Press<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Judge Regina Chu ordered that Ms. Potter be immediately sent to prison, and deputies led her out of the courtroom in handcuffs as one of her relatives shouted, \u201cLove you, Kim!\u201d As the verdict was read, Ms. Potter looked down briefly and then glanced at the jurors, but did not appear to cry, as she did when she testified earlier in the trial.<\/p>\n

It is unusual for police officers to be convicted after claiming to mix up a gun and Taser<\/a>, and jurors heard from several witnesses who testified that Ms. Potter had been right to try to stun Mr. Wright. Several police officers \u2014 including two who were put on the stand by prosecutors \u2014 suggested in their testimony that even if Ms. Potter had meant to fire her gun, it would have been justified because another officer was reaching into the passenger side of the car and was at risk of being dragged if Mr. Wright drove off. But in finding Ms. Potter guilty, jurors rejected that argument.<\/p>\n

Judge Chu will sentence Ms. Potter at a hearing scheduled for February. The standard sentence for the more serious charge, first-degree manslaughter, is a little over seven years in prison, and the maximum penalty is 15 years. Prosecutors have indicated that they will ask the judge to hand down a longer-than-average prison term, and Ms. Potter\u2019s lawyers are likely to ask for a sentencing below the standard range.<\/p>\n

Daunte Wright with his son, Daunte Jr., at his first birthday party.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Ben Crump Law<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mr. Wright\u2019s parents let out cries in the courtroom as the guilty verdicts were read and later joined several dozen of Mr. Wright\u2019s supporters who celebrated outside of the courthouse in downtown Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, Minnesota has shown that police officers are not going to continue to pull their gun instead of their Taser,\u201d Mr. Wright\u2019s mother, Katie Bryant, said to the supporters. \u201cAnd we made this happen, you made this happen, Daunte Wright made this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Body camera videos from the traffic stop on April 11 showed that Mr. Wright had twisted out of the grip of another officer who was trying to handcuff him and gotten back into the driver\u2019s seat of his car. A judge had issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Wright earlier that month after Mr. Wright missed a court date on charges that he had illegally possessed a gun and run from the police.<\/p>\n

In the videos, Ms. Potter is heard threatening to stun Mr. Wright with her Taser, but she had actually drawn her department-issued Glock. She yelled \u201cTaser! Taser! Taser!\u201d and pulled the trigger. Then, realizing that she had shot him instead, Ms. Potter shouted that she had grabbed the wrong weapon, collapsed to the ground and sobbed as she said she was going to go to prison.<\/p>\n

At trial, prosecutors conceded that the shooting was an accident, but they argued that Ms. Potter, who resigned two days after the shooting, had been so reckless that she should be imprisoned.<\/p>\n

\n
Video<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n