Parents ‘can’t accept’ death was accidental
‘This officer had been on the force for 26 years’
MINNEAPOLIS — The parents of Daunte Wright say they “can’t accept” a Minnesota police chief’s claim that the fatal shooting of their 20-year-old son was accidental.
Speaking about the death of Wright, Brooklyn Center police Chief Tim Gannon described the shooting as an “accidental discharge.”
In their first TV interview since their son’s death, Aubrey and Katie Wright pushed back against the narrative that Potter fired her weapon by “mistake.”
“I cannot accept that I lost my son,” Aubrey Wright told “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts on Tuesday. “He’s never coming back. I can’t accept that. A mistake? … That doesn’t even sound right. This officer has been on the force for 26 years. I can’t accept that.
“I would like to see justice served and (Potter) held accountable for everything that she’s taken from us.”
Katie Wright detailed the phone call her son made immediately after he was pulled over. Daunte Wright told his mother he had been stopped because he had air fresheners hanging from his rearview mirror.
After she told her son to give the phone to the police so she could relay his insurance information, she said, she heard officers tell him to put the phone down. She then heard “scuff ling” and “screaming” from Daunte Wright’s girlfriend before officers told them to end the call, she said.
The next person to answer the phone was Daunte Wright’s girlfriend, who said her son had been shot and was unresponsive in the driver’s seat. Asked how the altercation escalated to gun violence, Katie Wright said she didn’t know.