Ex-cop charged with manslaughter
The police officer who shot dead Black 20-year-old Daunte Wright in a Minneapolis suburb after appearing to mistake her gun for her Taser was arrested Wednesday on manslaughter charges.
MINNEAPOLIS: The police officer who shot dead Black 20-year-old Daunte Wright in a Minneapolis suburb after appearing to mistake her gun for her Taser was arrested Wednesday on manslaughter charges.
Minneapolis has been roiled by nightly violent protests after Kim Potter, who is white, opened fire on Wright in his car on Sunday.
Racial tensions were already high in the Midwestern US city as it hosts the trial of the white policeman charged with murdering George Floyd, whose death touched off a national reckoning over racial injustice.
Potter, a 26-year police veteran who resigned after Wright’s death, faces a maximum of 10 years in jail if convicted of second-degree manslaughter.
She is due to appear in court Thursday for a preliminary hearing after being released on a US$100,000 bail, according to local media.
“While we appreciate that the district attorney is pursuing justice for Daunte, no conviction can give the Wright family their loved one back,” said the Wrights’ family lawyer Ben Crump after the arrest.
“This was no accident. This was an intentional, deliberate, and unlawful use of force. We will keep fighting for justice for Daunte, for his family, and for all marginalised people of colour.”
Protesters faced off with police for a fourth night of violent clashes on Wednesday evening.
Riot police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators outside the fortified police station in Brooklyn Center, the suburb where Sunday’s shooting took place.
On Thursday concrete blocks and fences were erected around Potter’s family home north of Brooklyn Centre, with police vehicles patrolling the streets after protesters threatened to attack the property.