Kim Potter, Officer Who Killed Daunte Wright, Charged With 2nd-Degree Manslaughter

A Minneapolis prosecutor confirmed in a statement Wednesday that officer Kim Potter of the Brooklyn Center Police Department will face 2nd-degree manslaughter charged after fatally shooting Daunte Wright, an unarmed black man, during a traffic stop.

Second-degree manslaughter in Minnesota means that a person’s death was caused by “culpable negligence whereby the person creates an unreasonable risk, and consciously takes chances of causing death or great bodily harm to another.” Those convicted could face 10 years in prison and fines up to $200,000.

For the second night in a row, protesters have gathered in Brooklyn Center and Minneapolis leading to 60 arrests Tuesday night. The protests coincide with the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the officer who keeled on George Floyd’s neck until his death in 2020.

Hennepin County Sheriff David Hutchinson said in a statement, “[Potter] is no longer a police officer, and they’ll be held accountable for their actions,” he said. “But we can’t have people hurting our communities, we can’t have people hurting the men and women who are paid to protect them.”