© Provided by PeopleBruce Bisping/Star Tribune via Getty Images Daunte Wright, at left, and former police officer Kim Potter
Kim Potter, the Minnesota police officer who fatally shot a Black man, Daunte Wright, during a traffic stop in April, has been found guilty of first- and second-degree manslaughter.
The verdict was read on Thursday afternoon, and a visibly nervous Potter sighed as the jury rendered their decision.
Wright, a 20-year-old father, was shot by Potter in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center when he allegedly resisted arrest after being pulled over. Potter's former police chief said that the officer believed she was shooting her Taser, not her service weapon, when she fired a single shot that killed Wright.
Charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter, Potter entered a plea of not guilty. Her trial began in late November.
The central piece of evidence in the trial was footage from a body camera worn by Potter.
That footage reveals that after Wright was pulled over and approached by two officers for what former Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said were expired car tags, Wright, standing by the open driver's side door of his vehicle, wrestled free of handcuffs as they were being applied. Wright then apparently jumped back into his car with his girlfriend inside and appeared to try to drive off.
As the unarmed Wright did so, "the officer had the intention to deploy their Taser but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet," Gannon said at a news conference after the shooting.
Wright was struck in the chest. His vehicle then traveled several blocks before crashing into another car, and he died at the scene.
Potter, a 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Center police force, resigned in the wake of Wright's shooting. Police Chief Gannon resigned as well.
In filing the original criminal charge of second-degree manslaughter, Imran Ali, assistant criminal division chief in the Washington County Attorney's Office, said that Potter "abrogated her responsibility to protect the public when she used her firearm rather than her Taser."
He added: "Her action caused the unlawful killing of Mr. Wright and she must be held accountable."
According to the criminal complaint, Potter's Glock 9mm handgun was holstered on the right side of her duty belt, with the Taser on the left side and the handles of both facing Potter's rear. The Taser is supposedly distinguishable by its yellow color with a black grip, and set in a "straight-draw position," meaning Potter would likely have to use her left hand to pull it from its holster. But she shot Wright with her right hand, the complaint states.
During the trial, Potter's defense called the shooting a "horrific mistake," but also asserted that Potter would have been within her rights to use deadly force on Wright because he could have dragged another officer with his car.
After three days of deliberation, the jurors sided with the prosecution and found Potter guilty of all charges. The first-degree manslaughter charge carries a maximum sentence of seven years, while the second-degree charge carries a four-year charge.
Potter was taken into custody and held without bail. She will be sentenced in January.
Read the original article on People