Was Justice Served With 16-Month Sentence for Cop Who Killed Man?

This is intended to be more of a discussion of justice, than about the facts of this case.

On Sunday April 11, 2021, 26-year veteran Brooklyn Center, Minnesota Police Officer Kim Potter and an officer she was training stopped Daunte Wright, 20, around 2 p.m. because his vehicle registration was expired.

During the stop, Potter learned Wright had a warrant for his arrest arising from his non appearance for a hearing on charges of possession of a pistol without a permit and fleeing a police officer.

Wright was also facing trial for an aggravated robbery charge.

Potter and her trainee attempted to arrest Wright, but he chose to get back into his car.

Wright’s mother, Katie Wright, said she was on the phone with him when he got into his car.

“I heard scuffling, and I heard the police officers say, ‘Daunte, don’t run.’ And then the other officer said, ‘Put the phone down,’ and hung it up.”

When Wright chose not to submit, Potter announced she would use her taser.It all happened in seconds. 

Potter’s gun was holstered on the right side of her belt. The taser was on the left, with handles for both facing her back.

The taser is yellow with a black grip and set in straight-draw position. Potter would have to use her left hand to pull it out of the  holster.

Somehow Wright usedher right hand and held her Glock 9mm handgun. She pointed it at Wright.

In a body camera video, Potter yells “Taser, taser, taser.”

Potter then pulls the trigger shooting Wright in the chest in his car.

Wright’s car speeds off.

Potter yells, “I grabbed the wrong fucking gun. I shot him. Oh my God. Oh my God.”

Wright in his car went several blocks before crashing into another car. He died at the scene.

Moments after Wright was shot, 100 people were at the scene.

When investigators from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension responded, the “highly agitated” crowd was asked to disperse, and did so.

Later, 200 people marched to the Brooklyn Center Police Department headquarters. Rocks and other objects were thrown. There were shots fired in the area.

Police formed a perimeter around their building and declared the crowd an unlawful assembly. Police gave them a 10-minute warning to clear out. When the crowd declined, officers fired rubber bullets and flash bangs. Protesters left.

A second group appeared at Shingle Creek Crossing and broke into about 20 businesses.

During the next few nights, dozens were arrested. Officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, and protesters threw bottles or other items.

Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliot ordered a curfew to begin at 10 p.m. and end at 5 a.m.

Attorneys representing Wright’s family said in a statement, “This was no accident. This was an intentional, deliberate, and unlawful use of force. A 26-year veteran of the force knows the difference between a taser and a firearm. Kim Potter executed Daunte for what amounts to no more than a minor traffic infraction and a misdemeanor warrant.”

Mayor Elliott expressed support for the removal of officer Potter.

“We will get to the bottom of this,” Mayor Elliott said. “We will do all that is within our power to make sure that justice is done for Daunte Wright.”

The mayor spoke with President Biden, who offered “his administration’s support.”

Biden addressed the shooting the following afternoon, calling for an investigation into the “really tragic” incident.

“The question is: was it an accident? Was it intentional? That remains to be determined by a full-blown investigation,” Biden told reporters in the Oval Office.

Vice President Kamala Harris tweeted that “Daunte’s family needs to know why their child is dead — they deserve answers.”

The City Council removed longtime City Manager Curt Boganey, who had refused to fire Potter and Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon. Potter resigned from the force. Gannon, given the choice to be fired or resign, also submitted his resignation.

The Minnesota governor declared a regional curfew for the counties of Hennepin, Ramsey and Anoka, starting Monday at 7 p.m. local time, and ending Tuesday at 6 a.m. local time.

Minnesota mobilized its National Guard to Brooklyn Center at the request of local authorities.

On April 14, three days after the shooting Potter was charged with second-degree manslaughter, which carries a maximum 10-year sentence.

At her trial, it was established that Potter did not intend to shoot Wirght. Even the prosecution conceded that.

Potter expressed remorse at the trial. She sobbed under cross-examination.

A jury had to decide whether she was reckless and negligent. Manslaughter does not require intent, but “culpable negligence” by a person who “takes unreasonable risks.”

The jury convicted her and the judge sentenced her to 16 months.

Kim Potter after she was arrested on the left, and how she looks now on the right. (Minnesota Department of Corrections)

Hard Time

The Minnesota Correctional Facility – Shakopee (MCF-SHK) located in Scott County, is Minnesota’s only facility for female offenders. MCF-SHK is home to 500+ women of all five custody levels.

During Potter’s stay, the warden decided to replace all wood in the prison with metal. She removed wooden closets and drawers, and installed metal bunk beds and storage bins. No more hanging clothes. Prisoners slept on metal beds and lived out of metal bins.

To accomplish her vision, the warden relaxed safety codes for the number of prisoners for every shower, and lowered the square footage per inmate requirements that fire codes and state law require.

By providing small bins, the warden relaxed legal storage space requirements.

Due to overcrowding, the toilets barely flushed with women stuffed into wing lounges four to six deep.

While Potter was there, inmates were cold due to lack of heat from old heating units and no insulation. The average temperature inside the prison in December was in the low 60s. Potter learned to live with cold feet, hands and nose.

On top of that, she was a target in prison. Ex-cops are often placed in segregated or special housing during their prison stay. She likely spent much of her time alone.

Waiting for Her Release

Analyzing how to release Potter last month, the Minnesota Department of Correction found “elevated concern for Ms. Potter’s safety, including threatening comments directed at her and the potential for violent protests outside the Shakopee correctional facility.”

DOC commissioner Paul Schnell decided to release her at 4 a.m. to beat protestors who might harm Potter.

“Her incarceration was just a moment in time,” Wright’s mother, Katie Wright, told the Star Tribune. “She cursed us with a forever life sentence.”

When she left prison, Potter moved from Minnesota to Wisconsin. She has eight months to serve on supervised release.

Can Potter Rebuild A Life?

She still faces challenges. She may have difficulty getting a job. Who will employ her with her controversial past? No background check is needed. The first page of an internet search tells all the details.

Opening a bank account or getting insurance will also be challenging for Potter, since they run basic background checks.

What Else Needs to Be Said?

If Potter’s punishment for a tragic mistake seems excessive, I left out the usual way of describing people. Potter was white. Wright was black.

And the context: Potter killed Wright on April 11, 2021 in Minnesota.

In addition to protests over the death of Wright, there were already larger protests ongoing over the killing of another black man, George Floyd, by another white Minnesota cop, Derek Chauvin.

His trial was ongoing when Potter made her fatal mistake.

If It Were a Different Racial Equation, Would Justice Be Different?

Attorney Alan Dershowitz remarked, “Prior to the racial ‘reckoning’ that followed the unjustified killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020, a once-respected officer like Potter would never have been charged with criminal conduct for her tragic mistake. But the public demanded that she be charged. Indeed, some called for her to be accused of murder.”

Is it true?

If the tables were turned. Had it been a black female police officer, with 26 years on the force, who shot a white man refusing to surrender and apparently trying to flee, would she have been charged?

Would the President and the Vice President weigh in for justice for the dead white man?

Would there be protestors? And if there was not, should that weigh in to the calculus of whether to charge a black female officer?

Should protests influence the enforcement of law?

Would the justice system say the black officer made a tragic mistake?

In this hypothetical scenario, the white man had a warrant. The black cop’s duty was to arrest an individual with a warrant. The white man was facing trial for armed robbery. He fled police. She made a mistake in the rush of split second timing. The dead white guy got what’s coming to him.

There was more than a little eulogizing for the slain Wright, with little mention of his criminal past.

In a statement to ABC News, Wright’s family described Wright as a young father who “had a whole life ahead of him” or that he should be remembered as “a great person, making a mark in history.”

Was there a double standard?

This is not to deny that there has been immense racism, or that police have brutally beat and killed black people.

This is only to ask if justice should be based on facts, not the race of the parties involved.

If identical facts would lead to two different legal outcomes based on race, is it still justice?

Is it justice to say that the racial crimes of collective police in US history should impose a presumption to convict when the slain is black, as opposed to white?

Protesters gathered outside the police station in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.

Whether it’s a white cop getting charged for a fatal mistake, in which a black man contributed by running away, or a black man who has only known poverty, charged for a crime without evidence – by a system that knows he can’t defend himself and ergo a public defender will plead him into prison, when if he were white and could afford an attorney, they would be quick to bring flimsy charges – there is a disparity in what we call the justice system.

In the Potter case, the media pounced on race, without indicating exactly how Potter’s fatally mistaken actions were based on the race of the slain man.

Who knows if there was a subtle racism in play?

Would Potter have tried to taser Wright if he were white? Would she have stopped him in the first place?

This was a tragedy, which some used to stoke the flames of a justice system not interested in burning justice, but convictions and headlines. To mollify the crowd and the media. And some used it to make headlines, to stoke the flames of profit, self-aggrandizement and racism.

Wright was a victim who contributed to his fate. Was Potter a victim, or did she deserve what she got, or worse?

If a black cop was convicted of the identical manslaughter charge, would he get only 16 months like Potter?

The best way to answer these questions is to blindfold justice.

Know nothing of the race, the gender, the protests, the previous history of the slain or the slayer. Care nothing about pandering to the angry crowd, and less about conviction stats or headlines, good or bad.

Judge only the facts of what was approximately 90 seconds in the lives of two people, the last 90 seconds for Wright, the most consequential for Potter – judge it with blindfold, and see if the result remains the same.

The outrageous release of Kim Potter, the police officer who killed Duante Wright In Minnesota is an insult to all Americans who believe in justice. I did the eulogy at Duante’s funeral, and I said then and repeat now that Potter should face the full weight of the law.

— Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) April 24, 2023

Former cop Kim Potter is set to be released from prison after serving 16 months for killing Daunte Wright.

One year and 4 months for murdering a Black man.

Sounds about white.

https://t.co/NZf9SF1TUu

— Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) April 21, 2023