Former Brooklyn Center Police Officer Kimberly Potter was convicted of manslaughter after she shot and killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in Minnesota.
The shooting happened on April 11, 2021, near 63rd Avenue North and Orchard Avenue North in Brooklyn Center. According to the amended criminal complaint, Brooklyn Center Officer Anthony Luckey and his field training officer, Potter, stopped Wright’s white Buick because of expired registration tabs and an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror.
Luckey ran Wright’s information and learned he had an outstanding warrant for a gross misdemeanor weapons violation. Officers then returned to the car to arrest him. Wright got out of the vehicle, but as Luckey tried to handcuff him, Wright pulled away and got back into the driver’s seat.
Potter repeatedly indicated she was going to use a Taser. Instead, she drew her department-issued Glock 9mm handgun. The complaint states that Potter said “Taser, Taser, Taser” and then fired one round from her handgun into Wright.
Wright drove a short distance before the car crashed into another vehicle. Medical personnel could not revive him, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Potter was heard on body camera footage acknowledging that she had shot Wright and had grabbed the wrong weapon.
The shooting happened during the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, adding to already intense public anger over police killings in Minnesota and across the country. Protests followed in Brooklyn Center and the wider Minneapolis area.
Potter and Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon both resigned two days after the shooting. Gannon had initially described the shooting as an apparent accidental discharge, saying Potter appeared to have intended to use her Taser instead of her handgun.
Potter was charged with first-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter. The first-degree charge alleged that she caused Wright’s death while recklessly handling or using a firearm. The second-degree charge alleged culpable negligence that created an unreasonable risk of death or great bodily harm.
On December 23, 2021, a Hennepin County jury found Potter guilty on both manslaughter counts. The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, which led the prosecution, called the verdict a measure of accountability for Wright’s death.
On February 18, 2022, Potter was sentenced to 24 months in prison and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine. MPR News reported that Minnesota sentencing guidelines called for a substantially longer sentence, but Judge Regina Chu granted a downward departure.
Potter served 16 months in prison before being released from the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee on April 24, 2023. The Minnesota Department of Corrections said she would remain on supervised release until December 21, 2023, when her two-year sentence expired.
Wright’s family later reached a $3.25 million settlement with the City of Brooklyn Center. The settlement also included expected non-monetary reforms involving officer training on traffic stops, weapons confusion, de-escalation, implicit bias, and related police practices.
The case remains one of the most widely known examples of a police officer claiming to mistake a firearm for a Taser. For Daunte Wright’s family, the result was still permanent: a traffic stop over minor vehicle issues ended with a 20-year-old father dead, a former officer convicted, and a sentence that many viewed as far too light.
