A police officer who authorities say shot and killed a Black man in a Minneapolis suburb after a traffic stop has been arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter in the case, authorities said Wednesday.
Brooklyn Center police Officer Kim Potter is charged in Sunday’s shooting death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said.
Potter was arrested late Wednesday morning by agents with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and will be booked into the Hennepin County Jail, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said.
In Minnesota, second-degree manslaughter applies when authorities allege a person causes someone’s death by “culpable negligence whereby the person creates an unreasonable risk, and consciously takes chances of causing death or great bodily harm to another.”
Someone convicted of this charge would face a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $20,000.
Wright’s death Sunday in Brooklyn Center, which then-Police Chief Tim Gannon said appeared to be the result of Potter mistaking her gun for her Taser as Wright resisted arrest, has roiled a metropolitan area scarred by other police-involved deaths and reignited national conversations about policing and the use of force.
Developments in the investigation have unfolded daily, including the release of body camera footage and Gannon’s statement that the shooting appeared accidental on Monday, and the resignations of Potter and Gannon on Tuesday.
Protests, some violent, have taken place each night in and around Brooklyn Center. Wright’s family had called for charges against the officer.
