Jury starts deliberating in trial of ex-minn. cop who fatally shot Wright
MINNEAPOLIS — The suburban Minneapolis police officer who says she meant to use her Taser instead of her gun when she shot and killed Black motorist Daunte Wright made a “blunder of epic proportions” and did not have “a license to kill,” a prosecutor told jurors on Monday shortly before they began deliberating in her manslaughter trial.
Kim Potter’s attorney Earl Gray, though, countered during closing arguments that the former Brooklyn Center officer made an honest mistake by pulling her handgun instead of her Taser and that shooting Wright wasn’t a crime.
“In the walk of life, nobody’s perfect. Everybody makes mistakes,” Gray said. “My gosh, a mistake is not a crime. It just isn’t in our freedom-loving country.”
The mostly white jury began deliberating shortly before 1 p.m. Potter, 49, is charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11 shooting, which came after Wright was pulled over for having expired license plate tags and an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror.
Prosecutor Erin Eldridge said during her summation that Wright’s death was “entirely preventable. Totally avoidable.” And claiming it was a mistake is not a defense, she said, pointing out that the words ”accident” and “mistake” don’t appear in jury instructions.
“Accidents can still be crimes if they occur as a result of reckless or culpable negligence,” Eldridge said.
Gray argued that Wright “caused the whole incident” because he tried to flee from police during a traffic stop. Potter mistakenly grabbed her gun instead of her Taser because the traffic stop “was chaos,” he said.
Wright’s 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 killing of George Floyd.
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.
Asia storm toll rises: The death toll from the strongest typhoon to batter the Philippines this year climbed to 375, with more than 50 others still missing, officials said Monday.
At its strongest, Typhoon Rai packed sustained winds of 121 mph with gusts of up to 168 mph before blowing out into the South China Sea on Friday.
The death toll may still increase because several towns and villages remained out of reach due to downed communications and power outages, although massive cleanup and repair efforts were underway.
Many were killed by falling trees and collapsing walls, flash floods and landslides.
More than 700,000 people were lashed by the typhoon in central island provinces, including over 400,000 who had to be moved to emergency shelters.
Greece border wall: Greece says it will renew a request for European Union funds in 2022 to extend a border wall along its frontier with Turkey and promised to expand a surveillance network aimed at stopping migrants entering the country
illegally.
Takis Theodorikakos, a public order minister, told a parliamentary committee that Greece expects some countries bordering the EU to continue to exploit migration to exert political pressure on member states, citing the recent crisis in Belarus on its border with Poland and other EU members.
Greece’s center-right government has toughened the country’s migration policy and recently completed a 16-mile extension of a steel border wall to make the barrier span 24 miles.
“We believe the security on our own borders is linked to the security of the EU,” Theodorikakos said, adding that border walls and fences are normally funded by national governments.
A control center processing data from newly-built border surveillance towers equipped with long-range cameras and multiple sensors was due to begin
operating in early 2022, he said.
Pope decries violence: Pope Francis has denounced domestic violence against a woman as “nearly satanic” and said parents should never slap their children.
Francis made the comments in a televised encounter with an abused woman who recently fled her home with her four children. Their meeting was broadcast late Sunday on the private Mediaset network’s TG5 program and also included footage of Francis interacting with a homeless woman, a prisoner and a student.
The abused woman told the pope her story and asked him how she can find her dignity after she and her children suffered so much violence.
Francis, who has spoken out about “femicides,” responded by acknowledging the problem of domestic violence, which regularly makes headlines in Italy.
“For me the problem is nearly satanic, because it’s about profiting off the weakness of those who can’t defend themselves, who can only try to stop the blows,” he said. “It’s humiliating, very humiliating.”
Former Ukraine leader:
Ukrainian authorities on Monday notified the country’s former president that he is suspected of high treason and “aiding terrorist organizations” in Ukraine’s eastern separatist territories.
A statement by the State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine said the former President Petro Poroshenko is suspected of facilitating the activities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s republics — the two pro-russia separatist governments in the eastern rebel area — by having his government buy coal from the separatist territories in 2014-2015.
Poroshenko, 56, served as Ukraine’s fifth president
from 2014 to 2019 until losing in an election to the current president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Poroshenko faces up to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property if found guilty.
Georgia spaceport: A federal agency on Monday granted a license for a launchpad that would fly commercial rockets from coastal Georgia.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s approval of a launch site operator license for Spaceport Camden marks a significant milestone for the project.
Still, the FAA says that more comprehensive reviews would be needed before any rockets can be launched.
In its 36-page decision, the FAA said it considered potential impacts to the climate and environment, public comments, and the agency’s responsibility to encourage and promote commercial space launches by the private sector