US police officer charged with murder for killing black man

WASHINGTON. – A police officer who authorities say shot and killed a Black man in a Minneapolis suburb after a traffic stop has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Brooklyn Centre police Officer Kim Potter is charged in Sunday’s shooting death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said.

In Minnesota, second-degree manslaughter applies when authorities allege a person causes someone’s death by “culpable negligence whereby the person creates an unreasonable risk, and consciously takes chances of causing death or great bodily harm to another.”

Someone convicted of this charge would face a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and/or a fine of up to US$20 000.

Wright’s death on Sunday in Brooklyn Centre, which then-Police Chief Tim Gannon said appeared to be the result of Potter mistaking her gun for her Taser as Wright resisted arrest, has roiled a metropolitan area scarred by other police-involved deaths and reignited national conversations about policing and use of force.

Developments in the investigation have unfolded daily, including the release of body camera footage and Gannon’s statement that the shooting appeared accidental on Monday, and the resignations of Potter and Gannon on Tuesday.

Protests, some violent, have taken place each night in and around Brooklyn Center. Wright’s family had called for charges against the officer. Sunday’s killing of Wright is at least the third high-profile death of a Black man during a police encounter in the Minneapolis area in the past five years, after the death of George Floyd last year. – CNN.