She had been found guilty of manslaughter during her trial in December, Kim Potter was sentenced on Friday, February 18, to two years in prison. The 49-year-old policewoman killed a young African-American motorist in April 2021, claiming to have confused his service weapon with his Taser electric pistol.
The facts had occurred during a banal traffic check in the suburbs of Minneapolis. Daunte Wright, 20, had resisted arrest at Brooklyn Center. The death of Mr. Wright had moved the United States, because he had been killed at the time of the trial of the police officer Derek Chauvin who, in May 2020 in Minneapolis already, asphyxiated the black forties George Floyd.
The policewoman “made a tragic mistake” while she was doing “lawful arrest” explained the judge, Regina Chu, to justify the leniency of the sentence. “She never intended to do any harm,” added the judge. Kim Potter will be released from prison after sixteen months, and will serve the rest of her sentence on parole.
The family demanded “the most severe sentence possible”
At the helm, the prosecutor, Matt Frank, had demanded a sentence of just over seven years in prison for this policewoman with twenty-six years of a career hitherto without a hitch. Daunte Wright’s family, on the contrary, claimed “the most severe punishment possible” for Kim Potter, considering she was guilty of murder. “Kim Potter killed my son and he died on April 11. Today, justice has killed him again”reacted the mother of Daunte Wright, Katie Wright.
“I was cheated on, it hurts me and I am very angry,” added her husband, Arbuey Wright, believing that the former police officer had not received “just a pat on the hand”. The family lawyer, Ben Crump, who had also represented the relatives of George Floyd, for his part denounced “justice in black and white”. “We tried to encourage [la famille] to believe that there was fair justice in America, but with sentences like that, it’s hard to convince them, ” he said.
The lawyer for the ex-policewoman, Paul Engh, pleaded for a suspended sentence in view of her exemplary service record, her remorse expressed at trial and considering that she was not “not a risk for society”. “It was an accident, a mistake”, he said, claiming that Daunte Wright had acted “aggressively” to his arrest while he was under a warrant for his arrest.
“I’m so sorry for hurting you so much,” repeated during the hearing Kim Potter to the address of the family of the young driver, hoping that this one “may one day find a way to forgive because hate destroys us all”. On April 11, 2021, the police officer and a colleague decided to check the driver of a car for a minor traffic violation. After realizing that he was the subject of an arrest warrant, they decided to arrest him. During her trial in December, she described a situation “potentially dangerous”.
The young man, who was unarmed, had not allowed himself to be handcuffed and had restarted his car to flee. Kim Potter then drew what she said she thought was her stun gun. She had fired a single shot, mortally wounding Daunte Wright. Gatherings enamelled with violence had taken place several evenings in a row at Brooklyn Center before the arrest of Kim Potter restored calm.