Kim Potter, the former Brooklyn Center Police Officer who shot and killed black motorist Daunte Wright, was charged Wednesday with second-degree manslaughter. Potter faces up to 10 years imprisonment on the charge, but those so convicted in Minnesota usually serve less than 5.
Wright was pulled over, police say, because of expired plates, and an arrest warrant was identified over an unpaid misdemeanor fine. Potter shot and killed Wright as officers tried to drag him out of his vehicle. Potter, who resigned along with the Brooklyn Center police chief after the killing, claims she thought she was firing a taser.
Dozens of protestors have since been arrested in the subsequent nightly protests outside the Brooklyn Center police department, which briefly flew a Blue Lives Matter flag to make its position clear.
Potter, 48, was with the Brooklyn Center Police for 26 years and served as a training officer and leader of a police union. An official report shows she once told fellow officers to turn off their bodycams and stop talking to one another after they killed a suspect.