Kim Potter, the former Brooklyn Center police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright has been arrested and charged with manslaughter in the second degree.
2 days after the event Potter resigned from her post at the Brooklyn Square police department.
Civil unrest continues. The streets of Minneapolis and Brooklyn square have been filled with angry protestors since the day if the shooting.
The shooting occurred during a traffic stop where Daunte Wright was pulled over for expired registration tags on his license plate. Upon running his plates officers realized that he had a warrant out for his arrest.
When the arrest took place, Wright resisted and jumped back in his car. As officers struggled to subdue him, officer Potter shot him.
The officer had intended to deploy her taser but instead used her firearm. Professionals in the criminal Justice field have described this as a cognitive motor failure that happens rarely. Muscle memory likely played a role in the event.
Manslaughter in the second degree is described by Minnesota statute as:
“A person who causes the death of another by any of the following means is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than ten years or to payment of a fine of not more than $20,000, or both:
(1) by the person’s culpable negligence whereby the person creates an unreasonable risk, and consciously takes chances of causing death or great bodily harm to another; or
(2) by shooting another with a firearm or other dangerous weapon as a result of negligently believing the other to be a deer or other animal; or
(3) by setting a spring gun, pit fall, deadfall, snare, or other like dangerous weapon or device; or
(4) by negligently or intentionally permitting any animal, known by the person to have vicious propensities or to have caused great or substantial bodily harm in the past, to run uncontrolled off the owner’s premises, or negligently failing to keep it properly confined”