Sergeant held Wright’s arm before shooting
Potter cries during Friday’s testimony
MINNEAPOLIS – A police sergeant who was at the scene when Daunte Wright was shot testified Friday that he was holding Wright’s right arm with both hands to prevent Wright from driving away when he heard Officer Kim Potter yell,“taser, Taser, Taser!” followed by a pop.
Mychal Johnson, who was a patrol sergeant in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center at the time of Wright’s killing, took the stand at Potter’s manslaughter trial. Potter, who resigned two days after the shooting, says she mistakenly fired her gun instead of her Taser when she killed Wright, 20, as he tried to drive away from a traffic stop.
Prosecutors say Potter was a veteran Brooklyn Center officer who violated her training. Defense attorneys say Potter made a mistake but would have been justified in shooting Wright if she had consciously chosen to because other officers, including Johnson, might have been dragged if Wright drove away.
Video played in court Friday shows Johnson trying to comfort Potter as she cries and rocks back and forth on the ground with her head in her hands.
“Kim, take a breath. Kim, you’re OK,” he tells Potter. He also says: “Kim, that guy was trying to take off with me in the car.”
Potter, 49, is charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11 shooting of Wright, who was pulled over for having expired license plate tags and an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror.
Potter is white. Wright was Black. The shooting set off days of protests and clashes with law enforcement in Brooklyn Center just as former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was standing trial nearby in George Floyd’s death.
Johnson, now a major in the Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office, testified that he opened Wright’s passengerside door after Wright started to pull away from another officer, and that he leaned into the car, pushed the shift knob forward to make sure it was in park and reached for the keys to try to turn off the vehicle.
He said he then grabbed Wright’s right arm with both hands to prevent him from putting the car in drive and to handcuff him. Johnson said that at the time, he couldn’t see the other officer, Anthony Luckey, and he didn’t know what Potter was doing.
Body camera footage shows that as Potter yells “Taser, Taser, Taser!,” Johnson is using both of his hands to hold Wright’s hand and arm.
Johnson testified that he heard the Taser command followed by a “loud pop,” which he initially thought was a Taser. It is difficult to tell from the video if Johnson is still reaching into the car when the shot is fired.
Jurors also saw the most extensive video yet of Potter’s reaction right after the shooting, with Johnson’s body camera recording her walking to a fence with her hands to her face, saying, “I don’t know what happened.” Johnson takes her gun, for evidence, and puts his own in her holster. Later, after another officer expresses fear she might harm herself, Johnson retrieves his gun, empties it of bullets out of Potter’s view, and gives it back to her.
Upon further questioning, prosecutor Matthew Frank noted that Johnson didn’t draw his gun or Taser and that he stood up as the car drove away instead of being dragged. Frank also noted that the car didn’t move until after Potter shot Wright.
Body-camera video showed Wright pulling away from officers and getting back in his car as they tried to arrest him on the outstanding warrant. After he was shot, the car drove down the street and crashed into another vehicle.