First-Degree Manslaughter Charge Added Against Former Brooklyn Center Officer in Daunte Wright’s Death

(KNSI) – The former Brooklyn Center police officer who fatally shot 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in April is now charged with first-degree manslaughter.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced the new charge Thursday in an amended criminal complaint against 49-year-old Kimberly Potter.

“On or about April 11, 2021, in Brooklyn Center, Hennepin County, Minnesota, Defendant Kimberly Ann Potter caused the death of Daunte Demetrius Wright, while committing the misdemeanor offense of reckless handling or use of a firearm so as to endanger the safety of another with such force and violence that death or great bodily harm to any person was reasonably foreseeable,” the amended criminal complaint alleges on the first-degree manslaughter charge.

Potter’s original second-degree manslaughter charge remains.

The maximum sentence for first-degree manslaughter is 15 years in prison and/or a $30,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, on April 11, 2021 shortly before 2 p.m., Potter and Brooklyn Center Police officer Anthony Luckey pulled over a white car, driven by Wright, 63rd Avenue North and Orchard Avenue North in Brooklyn Center. Luckey told Wright he had been pulled over for expired tabs and having an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror. Luckey went back to the squad car to run a record check on Wright, finding that he had an outstanding warrant for a gross misdemeanor weapons violation.

Officers on scene then asked Wright to get out of his car and attempted to arrest him. Wright got back into the driver’s side of his car, and officers tried to get him back out of the car. The criminal complaint says Potter verbally stated she was going to tase Wright, but body-worn camera footage shows that Potter was holding her service handgun in her right hand and pointing it toward Wright. She then verbally announced twice that she was using her taser, then, the criminal complaint reads, she discharged her handgun once, firing one bullet, striking Wright in the left side of his chest.

Wright’s car moved down the street until it crashed into another vehicle a short distance away. The criminal complaint says medical personnel responded to the scene, but at 2:18 p.m., Wright was pronounced dead at the scene.

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