A jury on Thursday found former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter guilty of first-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter in the death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, whom she shot and killed following an April traffic stop. Judge Regina Chu ordered Potter to be remanded without bail as she awaits sentencing on February 18.
Potter was a 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Center police department when she pulled over Wright because of expired license plate tags on his car. Potter Anthony Luckey, an officer she was training, decided to arrest Wright after discovering that he had an outstanding warrant. According to the Associated Press, Luckey ordered Wright to get out of the car and he complied. But when she attempted to cuff him, he got back into his car and a struggle ensued.
Potter testified during the trial that she shot Wright after pulling her gun instead of her Taser as she intended. Body camera footage of the incident showed Potter shouting “Taser! Taser! Taser!” and then firing a single shot at Wright in the car. The car sped up and crashed, and Wright later died from his gunshot injuries. Potter resigned from the force two days after the shooting.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that Potter could face a nearly seven-year sentence for the first-degree manslaughter charge and four years for the second-degree manslaughter charge.
