Police officer, chief resign
A white police officer who fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb and the city’s police chief resigned Tuesday. The mayor said he hoped the community could heal now.
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. – A white police officer who fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb resigned Tuesday, as did the city’s police chief – moves that the mayor said he hoped would help heal the community and lead to reconciliation after two nights of protests and unrest.
The resignations from Officer Kim Potter and Police Chief Tim Gannon came two days after the death of 20year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center. Potter, a 26-year veteran, had been on administrative leave since Sunday’s shooting, which happened with the Minneapolis area already on edge over the trial of the first of four police officers in George Floyd’s death.
Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott said he was “appreciative” that Potter submitted her resignation but that he had neither asked for it nor accepted it. It wasn’t immediately clear what that would mean.
A decision on whether prosecutors will charge Potter could come as soon as Wednesday. Meanwhile, the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul imposed 10 p.m. curfews. A Brooklyn Center city spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a message on whether that city would have a curfew.
Gannon has said he believed Potter mistakenly grabbed her gun when she was going for her stun gun. She can be heard on her body camera video shouting “Taser! Taser!” However, protesters and Wright’s family members say there’s no excuse for the shooting and that it shows how the justice system is tilted against Blacks, noting Wright was stopped for an expired car registration and ended up dead.
Elliott said at a news conference that the city had been moving toward firing Potter when she resigned. He said he hoped her resignation would “bring some calm to the community,” but that he would keep working toward “full accountability under the law.”
“We have to make sure that justice is served, justice is done. Daunte Wright deserves that, his family deserves that,” Elliott said.
Elliott said the department has about 49 police officers, none of whom live in Brooklyn Center. He said he didn’t have information on racial diversity at hand but that “we have very few people of color in our department.”
The modest suburb just north of Minneapolis has seen its demographics shift dramatically in recent years. In 2000, more than 70% of the city was white. Today, a majority of residents are Black, Asian or Latino.
Wright was stopped for having expired license plates. Police then tried to arrest him on an outstanding warrant for failing to appear in court on charges that he fled from officers and possessed a gun without a permit during an encounter with Minneapolis police in June.
Body camera footage released Monday shows Wright struggling with police when Potter shouts, “I’ll tase you! I’ll tase you! Taser! Taser! Taser!” She draws her weapon after the man breaks free from police outside his car and gets back behind the wheel.
After firing one shot from her handgun, the car speeds away, and Potter says, “Holy (expletive)! I shot him.”