• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Towleroad Gay News

Gay Blog Towleroad: More than gay news | gay men

  • Politics
  • Health
  • Travel
  • Gay Pride
  • Music
  • Sports
  • Law/Justice
  • Celebrities
  • Men
  • Space
  • Science
  • Gay Iconography
  • Madonna
  • Books
  • Monkeypox
  • Film/TV

Ex-Minnesota police officer Kimberly Potter sentenced to 2 years in Daunte Wright killing

Towleroad February 19, 2022 Leave a Comment

Published by
Reuters
496519 origin 1

By Nathan Layne

(Reuters) -A Minnesota judge on Friday sentenced former police officer Kimberly Potter to two years in the fatal shooting of Black motorist Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, a lighter sentence than the roughly seven years in prison sought by prosecutors.

Potter, 49 — who mistook her handgun for her Taser in firing on Wright, 20, as he resisted officers who pulled him over in a Minneapolis suburb last April — was found guilty by a jury in December of first-degree and second-degree manslaughter.

“This is a cop who made a tragic mistake,” said Judge Regina Chu, who became emotional as she handed down the 24-month sentence, two-thirds of which is to be served in prison and the remaining third on supervised release.

Chu said Potter was required to make a split-second decision during a “chaotic and tense” encounter with Wright and that the evidence presented at trial justified the veteran policewoman’s intended use of a Taser to protect another officer at the scene.

But she said a sentence of probation, which Potter’s lawyers had argued for, was not enough to account for the loss of life.

“In this case, a young man was killed because Officer Potter was reckless,” Chu said, calling the case one of the saddest in her career. “Rightfully, there should be some accountability.”

The shooting in Brooklyn Center triggered multiple nights of protests there. It occurred just a few miles north of where Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was standing trial for killing George Floyd, a Black man whose 2020 death during an arrest helped set off demonstrations around the nation and the world over racism and killings by police.

In rendering her decision, the judge made a point of distinguishing Potter’s actions from those of Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes and was convicted of murder. Both former officers are white.

Daunte Wright’s mother Katie Wright expressed anger that Chu was emotional in delivering the sentence but not during Wright’s victim-impact statement in court on Friday. She blasted the two-year punishment as too lenient and questioned the sincerity of Potter’s tearful testimony at trial.

“Kim Potter murdered my son, and he died April 11. Today the justice system murdered him all over again,” Wright said outside the courthouse. “White woman tears trumped justice.”

Prosecutors had sought a sentence of seven years and two months, in line with state guidelines for first-degree manslaughter. Under state law, defendants facing multiple charges for the same act are sentenced only for the most serious count.

But Judge Chu appeared to side with the arguments for leniency put forward by Potter’s lawyers, who cited her lack of a prior criminal record and her complaint-free 26 years on the police force. One of her attorneys, Paul Engh, said on Friday that Wright had been an “aggressor” in resisting arrest.

Chu also said she believed that Potter, who broke down in giving brief remarks on Friday, had shown deep remorse.

“I am so sorry that I hurt you so badly,” Potter said in court on Friday in comments directed at Wright’s family. “My heart is broken and devastated for all of you.”

Potter has not appealed her conviction, and has not indicated she plans to appeal.

Potter and a second officer pulled Wright over because there was an air freshener illegally hanging from his mirror and his vehicle registration tab had expired. They then learned of a warrant for his arrest on a misdemeanor weapons charge and tried to detain him. Wright resisted, breaking free from the second officer.

Potter then shouted, “Taser, Taser, Taser!” and fired at Wright with her handgun, video from her body-worn camera showed. Potter testified that she feared for the life of a third officer who had entered the car through the passenger side.

(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut, Doina Chiacu in Washington and Tyler Clifford in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

496519 496519 origin 1 1
496519 496519 origin 1 2
496519 496519 origin 1 3
496519 496519 origin 1 4

Topics: Aaon, towleroad

  • Bad Bunny refuses to give clothes a gender

    Bad Bunny refuses to give clothes a gender

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Bad Bunny refuses to give clothes a gender. The 28-year-old rap star – whose real name is Benito Ocasio – is unsure what defines “masculine” or “feminine” and cannot discriminate clothing …Read More »
  • Biden to issue policing order on George Floyd death anniversary -media reports

    Biden to issue policing order on George Floyd death anniversary -media reports

    Published by Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden is set to issue an executive order on Wednesday directing federal agencies to revise use-of-force policies as the United States marks the two-year anniversary of the police …Read More »
  • Ellen DeGeneres starts her ‘career pause’ in Africa

    Ellen DeGeneres starts her ‘career pause’ in Africa

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Ellen DeGeneres’ “career pause” will begin with a luxury African vacation. The final episode of ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ will air later this week, and Ellen and her wife Portia de …Read More »
  • ‘The Kids in the Hall’ review: Sketch comedy is a young person’s game — yet here are older guys just ripping into the form as if they never left

    ‘The Kids in the Hall’ review: Sketch comedy is a young person’s game — yet here are older guys just ripping into the form as if they never left

      Published by Chicago Tribune   The TV landscape tends to feel pretty dismal when “Saturday Night Live” is the only sketch comedy game in town. And often that’s the case. Over its four-plus decade run, …Read More »
Previous Post: « US resumes avocado imports from Mexico
Next Post: Amazon Suspends Black Lives Matter From Charity Platform After Group Fails To Disclose Where $60 Million In Donations Has Gone »

Primary Sidebar

News

  • Pelosi hits back at San Francisco archbishop for banning her from Communion over pro-choice stance

    Pelosi hits back at San Francisco archbishop for banning her from Communion over pro-choice stance

  • Mick Jagger Cuts Harry Style Down To Size, Says He ‘Doesn’t Have A Voice Like Mine Or Move On Stage Like Me’

    Mick Jagger Cuts Harry Style Down To Size, Says He ‘Doesn’t Have A Voice Like Mine Or Move On Stage Like Me’

  • Summer Love? Rosie O’Donnell Teases Possible New Girlfriend With PDA Moment

    Summer Love? Rosie O’Donnell Teases Possible New Girlfriend With PDA Moment

  • U.S. commission recommends renaming nine Army bases to strip Confederate legacy

    U.S. commission recommends renaming nine Army bases to strip Confederate legacy

Break

  • Keanu Reeves hailed one of world’s nicest men

    Keanu Reeves hailed one of world’s nicest men

  • Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo and Noami Ackie join ‘Parasite’ Filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s new movie And it Sounds Mind Blowing

    Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo and Noami Ackie join ‘Parasite’ Filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s new movie And it Sounds Mind Blowing

  • Starbucks to completely exit Russia after Ukraine invasion

    Starbucks to completely exit Russia after Ukraine invasion

  • Evan Spiegel & Miranda Kerr Pay Off $10 Million In Loans Of Otis College’s Graduating Class

    Evan Spiegel & Miranda Kerr Pay Off $10 Million In Loans Of Otis College’s Graduating Class

RSS Partner Links

  • Morning Wood
  • “The latest ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ trailer finally reveals the villain” links
  • Duchess Meghan kissed Harry, then wiped her lipstick off of his mouth
  • Kristen Stewart, Scott Speedman & Tom Sturridge Match In Sharp Sunglasses For Cannes 75th Anniversary Event
  • Diane Kruger & Norman Reedus Are Couple Goals at Cannes Film Festival 2022
  • Jennifer Connelly Recalls Meeting Princess Diana When She Was A Teenager
  • CBS Pulls 'FBI' Season Finale After Elementary School Shooting in Texas
  • Scenes from Greg Berlanti’s 50th birthday!
  • Texas: 14 Children, 1 Teacher Shot Dead In Uvalde Elementary School; Shooter Dead

Most Recent

  • NC Republicans push ban on teachers discussing LGBTQ issues, other rules for schools

    NC Republicans push ban on teachers discussing LGBTQ issues, other rules for schools

  • Bad Bunny refuses to give clothes a gender

    Bad Bunny refuses to give clothes a gender

  • Biden to issue policing order on George Floyd death anniversary -media reports

    Biden to issue policing order on George Floyd death anniversary -media reports

  • Ellen DeGeneres starts her ‘career pause’ in Africa

    Ellen DeGeneres starts her ‘career pause’ in Africa

  • ‘The Kids in the Hall’ review: Sketch comedy is a young person’s game — yet here are older guys just ripping into the form as if they never left

    ‘The Kids in the Hall’ review: Sketch comedy is a young person’s game — yet here are older guys just ripping into the form as if they never left

  • Opinion: The Right-Wing Airing of Imaginary Grievances Like Sex Ed Is Not and Never Has Been Used To Groom

    Opinion: The Right-Wing Airing of Imaginary Grievances Like Sex Ed Is Not and Never Has Been Used To Groom

  • Tan France gets parenting advice from Gigi Hadid

    Tan France gets parenting advice from Gigi Hadid

Most Commented

Social

Twitter @tlrd | Facebook | Instagram @tlrd
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2022 · Log in