{"id":27048,"date":"2021-12-24T11:26:33","date_gmt":"2021-12-24T11:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/?p=27048"},"modified":"2021-12-24T11:26:33","modified_gmt":"2021-12-24T11:26:33","slug":"former-minnesota-police-officer-kim-potter-found-guilty-in-shooting-death-of-daunte-wright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/24\/former-minnesota-police-officer-kim-potter-found-guilty-in-shooting-death-of-daunte-wright\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Minnesota police Officer Kim Potter found guilty in shooting death of Daunte Wright"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The jury in the trial of former police Officer Kimberly Potter returned a guilty verdict Thursday on two counts of manslaughter for the shooting death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, on April 11.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative ma0 overflow-hidden dn-p\">\n<div class=\"relative overflow-hidden \"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"db relative center\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wsws.org\/asset\/d9bacaa6-34bc-4508-a24e-518a5fbbac71?rendition=image1280\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"db avenir f7 f6-m lh-title black-60 tc pt3 ph3\">This undated file booking photo provided by the Hennepin County, Minn., Sheriff shows Kim Potter, a former Brooklyn Center, Minn., police officer. (Hennepin County Sheriff via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After deliberating for 27 hours since Monday, the 12-member jury\u2014comprised of nine whites, two Asian Americans and one black member\u2014found Potter guilty of first- and second-degree manslaughter when she fired one fatal shot from her gun at the young man during a traffic stop and attempted arrest. Potter, a white officer with 26 years in the Brooklyn Center Police Department, had claimed on the day of the shooting and throughout the trial that she mistook her service weapon for her Taser when she shot Wright.<\/p>\n<p>The former police officer displayed no emotion when the verdict was read. The parents of Daunte Wright\u2014Arbuey Wright, who is black, and Katie Bryant, who is white\u2014were in the courtroom and let out sighs and cries, according to news reports. Bryant told reporters later in the afternoon, \u201cThe moment we heard guilty on manslaughter one emotion, every single emotion that you can imagine just running through your body. I kind of let out a yelp because it was built up in the anticipation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In deciding on both first- and second-degree manslaughter, the jury concluded that Potter had committed \u201ca conscious or intentional act\u201d in handling her gun in a manner that created a risk that she was aware of and disregarded and that she had also consciously taken a chance of causing great bodily harm.<\/p>\n<p>Potter was ordered held without bail by Fourth Judicial District Judge Regina Chu after the verdict was read at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, and was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs. Judge Chu, who is scheduled to sentence Potter on February 18, denied a motion by the defense to allow Potter to go home before sentencing on the grounds of her \u201cdeep roots in the community.\u201d The judge said, \u201cI cannot treat this case any differently than any other case.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside data-track-content=\"true\" data-content-name=\"33% of article\" data-content-piece=\"\/en\/articles\/2021\/12\/24\/pott-d24.html\"\/>\n<p>The maximum prison sentence for first-degree manslaughter, based on reckless use or handling of a firearm, is 15 years. Since Potter, 49, has no criminal history, legal experts say Minnesota sentencing guidelines recommend a prison term of between 6 and 8.5 years. Potter was transferred to the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee, Minnesota, according to the state Department of Corrections.<\/p>\n<p>The fatal shooting of Daunte Wright and the subsequent indictment, arrest and trial of the officer who killed him are a case study in the class-based application of law enforcement and criminal justice in America that are repeated day in and day out in towns and cities across the country.<\/p>\n<p>Wright was driving with his girlfriend in a vehicle that was registered in his brother\u2019s name, and they were on their way to a car wash when they were pulled over by police on April 11. Potter was a passenger in a Brooklyn Center police cruiser, along with a trainee officer who observed Wright signaling a right turn from a left turn lane. The officers then determined that his car registration tag was expired, and he had an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror, a violation in the state of Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p>After Wright was pulled over, the officers found that he was driving without a license, did not have proof of auto insurance and, when they ran his name through a police database, that there was an open warrant for his arrest due to failure to appear in court on a misdemeanor gun possession charge. The officers also found that there was a protective order against Wright by an unnamed woman.<\/p>\n<p>The officers decided to arrest Wright, and he exited the vehicle and put his hands behind his back in order to be handcuffed. At this point, Wright started resisting the arrest, broke free from the officers and reentered the car. The training officer opened the passenger side door and attempted to prevent Wright from gaining control of the steering wheel.<\/p>\n<p>By this point, Potter, who was on the driver\u2019s side, had already taken her 9mm Glock from her right-side holster while her Taser remained holstered on her left side. She said, \u201cI\u2019ll tase you,\u201d and then yelled, \u201cTaser!, Taser!, Taser!\u201d and fired a single shot into Wright\u2019s chest. Police body cam footage shows Potter pulling her gun, shooting Wright and immediately saying she shot him by accident because she mistook her gun for a Taser and exclaiming, \u201cHoly shit, I just shot him.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside data-track-content=\"true\" data-content-name=\"66% of article\" data-content-piece=\"\/en\/articles\/2021\/12\/24\/pott-d24.html\"\/>\n<p>The car moved away from the location of the traffic stop for a short distance before it collided with another vehicle. He was shortly thereafter pronounced dead at the scene. The incident took place during the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who was later found guilty of killing George Floyd by kneeling on his neck on May 25, 2020.<\/p>\n<p>In the charged political environment nearly a year after the mass protests against police violence arising from the brutal killing of Floyd, word about the shooting of Wright spread throughout the Minneapolis area and demonstrations began immediately in the Twin Cities and spread to other parts of the US.<\/p>\n<p>Police attacked protesters for three days after crowds formed outside of the Brooklyn Center police headquarters. Police in riot gear were deployed, mass arrests were carried out, and media representatives were detained in what was described by reporters as a \u201cwar zone.\u201d Meanwhile, Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott called on Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to mobilize National Guard troops that were then quickly dispatched to back up the local police.<\/p>\n<p>It was under the conditions of social unrest that Potter was arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter by the Washington County Attorney\u2019s Office in the death of Wright. With protests continuing and demands being raised for the charges to be upgraded to murder, the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison took over the prosecution of Potter on May 21. On September 2, Ellison\u2019s office added the charge of first-degree manslaughter.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the trial, which began on December 8, the defense argued that Potter had committed an \u201caction error\u201d when she shot Wright with gun. In the words of her lawyer, this means doing \u201cone thing when intending to do another,\u201d or, according to an academic definition, it is \u201ca human error under stress.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Significantly, the psychological argument against conviction of Potter was combined by her defense lawyers with claims that her use of deadly force was justified even if she did not know she had a gun in her hand. As is typical in the rare instances that police are tried for committing murder, the defense argued that Wright was responsible for his own death. These arguments, which are used to justify so many police killings every year, were rejected outright by the jury.<\/p>\n<aside data-track-content=\"true\" data-content-name=\"100% of article\" data-content-piece=\"\/en\/articles\/2021\/12\/24\/pott-d24.html\"\/>\n<aside class=\"dn-p relative mv4 _bt _bb\" style=\"width:100vW;left:50%;right:50%;margin-left:-50vW;margin-right:-50vW\">\n<div class=\"mw6 mw7-l center ph3 ph0-m avenir\">\n<div class=\"cf bg-black-05 pa3 pa4-m br3\">\n<div class=\"center w-100 \">\n<p><span type=\"text-line\">Sign up for the WSWS email newsletter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div type=\"custom-code\" class=\"\">\n<aside class=\"dn-p relative mv4 _bt _bb\">\n<div class=\"mw6 mw7-m _mw-75rem-l center bg-black-05\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mehring.com\" class=\"db avenir f6 lh-title br2 tc mw6 mw-75rem-m bg-black-05 mt3 center\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"db\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wsws.org\/asset\/e5039cb2-0f41-4f2e-a293-4624c5fa7be6?rendition=image1280\"\/><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/2021\/12\/24\/pott-d24.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] The jury in the trial of former police Officer Kimberly Potter returned a guilty&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learningtheory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27050,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27048\/revisions\/27050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}