Kim Potter, a former Minnesota police officer, sobbed in court on Friday as she testified in her trial for the shooting death of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man.
"It just became chaotic," Potter told the 12-member Hennepin County District Court jury as she described Wright's death on April 11, 2021.
Potter, 49, testified in her own defense during her manslaughter trial, where she is charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter. During a traffic check in the Minneapolis suburb, the 26-year veteran policeman - who is white and has since resigned from the Brooklyn Center Police Department - fatally shot Wright.
Kimberly Potter emotionally apologizes for shooting Daunte Wright
Potter, who pleaded not guilty to both counts, stated that when she shot Wright in the chest, she intended to get her Taser, which was holstered on the other side of her body. Potter shouts, "Taser! Taser! Taser!" before shooting Wright as he tries to sit down in the driver's seat of his car, according to body-camera footage previously shown in court to jurors, Insider reported.
Potter said she did not recall stating she was going to prison when being questioned by defense counsel Earl Gray. During cross-examination, Potter sobbed again on the stand as body-camera footage of the event was shown frame-by-frame for the jury.
Judge Regina Chu of Hennepin County took a pause for lunch because the former officer was obviously distressed. Former Sgt. Mychal Johnson, who had gone to the scene that April day, had "a look of panic on his face" during a confrontation with Wright seconds before the shooting, Potter said earlier Friday.
Potter's case relies heavily on the fact that Johnson was leaning into the automobile from the passenger side just seconds before the incident. Johnson previously testified that if Wright had managed to evade the traffic stop while he was inside the car, he would have been "probably dragged" and maybe murdered.
Under questioning from one of her lawyers, Potter stated that she had no training on "weapons confusion," claiming that it was referenced in training but not something that her officers were physically taught to do. She also claimed that, in her 26 years on the job, she had never used a Taser while on duty though she had brought it out a few occasions and that she had never fired her pistol until the day she shot Wright.
Potter describes how she shot Daunte Wright
Officer Anthony Luckey, who was instructing Potter, claimed he spotted Wright's car in a turn lane with the signal turned on incorrectly, as well as an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror and expired plates.
Luckey wanted to stop the car, but she wouldn't have done so if she'd been on patrol alone herself, she said, given the long wait for Minnesota drivers to renew their vehicle registrations at the time of the pandemic. They were compelled to arrest Wright after discovering he had a bench warrant for a firearms violation, she added since the warrant "was an order of the court," as per HuffPost.
Potter's lawyers have tried to paint the scenario as perilous for the police throughout the trial, claiming that Johnson would be dragged down the street if Wright was allowed to drive away. They've maintained that even if Potter pulled the wrong weapon, she was justified in employing force.
Per MIRROR, after a week of witness testimony, prosecutors rested their case on Thursday, focusing on proving Potter's considerable training, which they said made her legally liable in Wright's death.
Prior to the incident, Potter had worked for 26 years as a police officer in the Minneapolis neighborhood of Brooklyn Center, which sparked three nights of protests, with opponents claiming it was yet another example of police violence against Black people.
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