Tears and apologies. A white policewoman tried in Minneapolis for having killed a young African-American last April recounted on Friday how a banal traffic control turned into “chaos” in a few minutes. Kim Potter, 49, is charged with manslaughter.
She has always claimed to have drawn her service weapon believing she was using her electric Taser gun when Daunte Wright, 20, resisted his arrest in Brooklyn Center, in the suburb of this large city in the north of the United States.
“We were fighting to keep him from running away, and then it became chaos. I remember shouting ‘Taser, Taser, Taser’ and nothing happened. And he (his colleague) told me that I had shot him, ”she said before bursting into tears. She assured not to remember the moments that followed. “There’s an ambulance for me, and I don’t know why, then I’m at the police station,” she said. Before apologizing: “I’m sorry that happened. I didn’t want to hurt anyone ”
“Potentially dangerous” situation
On April 11, 2021, a Sunday, the policewoman was patrolling with a colleague who had decided to check the driver of a white Buick who had committed a minor traffic violation. After realizing that he was the subject of an arrest warrant, they decided to arrest him.
The policewoman described a “potentially dangerous” situation. “Sometimes there are guns in the car, people are not cooperative, we don’t know who we are controlling,” she explained.
The young man, who was unarmed, had not let himself be handcuffed and had restarted his car to flee. Kim Potter then drew what she said to think was her electric gun. On a recording of the scene, he is heard shouting “Taser” several times, before fatally injuring Daunte Wright.
The drama had a strong impact because it had arisen during the trial of white policeman Derek Chauvin who, in May 2020 in Minneapolis, asphyxiated George Floyd, a black man of 46 years. The ordeal of the forty-something had provoked huge anti-racist demonstrations around the world.
Careless handling
Gatherings enamelled with violence had taken place several nights in a row in Brooklyn Center before the arrest of Kim Potter brought calm. His lawyer, Paul Engh, pleads human error and the effect of stress because she was trying to protect his colleague according to him. But for prosecutor Erin Eldridge, Daunte Wright died from the reckless handling of a weapon and the negligence of an officer who had 26 years of experience. She insisted on the differences, with a bright yellow Taser twice as light as her service weapon.
Ben Crump, the lawyer for the Wright family, said in a statement after Kim Potter’s testimony that “the murder of Daunte Wright (…) was completely preventable”. “The argument according to which she confused her Taser and her weapon is more than incomprehensible”, he added, denouncing “the ill-considered and tragic choice” of the policewoman as well as “the flaws in the training” of the police officers of Brooklyn Center.