April 13, 2021

The Cop Who Shot Daunte Wright Just Resigned

A protestor confronts police during a demonstration over the death of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.ImageSPACE/Zuma

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Kim Potter, the police officer who shot and killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on Sunday, has resigned, as has the city’s police chief.

Potter, a 26-year veteran police officer, repeatedly shouted, “Taser!” before firing one fatal shot into Wright’s car. Tim Gannon, the former police chief, said that Potter had mistakenly grabbed her gun instead of her taser.

Wright’s parents don’t accept that explanation. “I lost my son,” Aubrey Wright, Daunte’s father, said in an interview with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America today. “He’s never coming back. I can’t accept that.”

“I have loved every minute of being a police officer and serving this community to the best of my ability,” Potter wrote in her resignation letter, “but I believe it is in the best interest of the community, the department, and my fellow officers if I resign immediately.”

Watch Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott announce the resignations below:

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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