Screenshot of police body cam video is shown in court at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. Shows former cop Kim Potter after a traffic stop where Daunte Wright was shot.
AP
hide captions
switch captions
AP
Screenshot of police body cam video is shown in court at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. Shows former cop Kim Potter behind a traffic stop where Daunte Wright was shot.
AP
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota police officer on trial in the shooting that killed Daunte Wright is expected to take a stand Friday, hoping to convince jurors to acquit her of guilt. close in what you say is a gun-Taser mix.
A compressed defense case for Kim Potter looks set to be over in just two days, with juries also expected to hear an expert on how such flaws can happen.
Potter, 49, shot Wright after he got away from officers seeking to arrest him on a wanted weapons warrant on April 11 in Minneapolis, a suburb of Central Brooklyn. Full-body camera video captures her screaming “I’ll make fun of you!” and “Taser, Taser, Taser!” before firing once.
Wright’s death sparked days of angry protests in Downtown Brooklyn. It happened when another former white officer, Derek Chauvin, was on trial in nearby Minneapolis for the murder of George Floyd.
Besides arguing that Wright’s death was a tragic mistake, Potter’s attorneys also say she would be justified in using deadly force to stop Wright from driving away and possibly dragging one of the Potter’s fellow officer.
Potter’s director at the time, Tim Gannon, testified on her behalf on Thursday. Gannon called Potter “a good cop” and said he “did not see a violation” of her policy by stopping.
Gannon resigned two days after the shooting, saying he was essentially forced out of the house because he didn’t want to fire Potter immediately. Potter resigned the same day.
Under questioning by Potter’s attorney Earl Gray, Gannon testified that he watched the full body camera video immediately following the recent dash and dash cam video and when he had “all the data in front of me, I see no violation.”
“Violation of what?” Gray asked.
“About policy, procedure or law,” Gannon said.
Prosecutor Matthew Frank threw it straight at Gannon during cross-examination, asking him if it was in line with the policy “to let an officer not know they had a gun in their hand when they fired it.”
Prosecutors argued that Potter was an experienced officer who received extensive training in Taser handling, including warnings about the risk of confusing a pistol with a handgun. They must demonstrate reckless recklessness or blameworthy negligence in order to be convicted of manslaughter.
Gannon testified that it appeared to him from the dashcam video that Sgt. Mychal Johnson, who assisted with the stop, “relyed” on Wright’s car. He said it was his opinion that deadly force was justified.
Gannon recalls his own experience being dragged by a car. He said he felt “absolute horror” and a sense of “simply trying to survive.”
Gannon said Potter was known to handle calls, act professionally and write police reports well. He testified that she volunteered to join a group that helped families when officers were killed in the line of duty. She also works with domestic abuse victims and is a field trainer.
Earlier Thursday, the defense opened the case with use of force expert Stephen Ijames, a former assistant sheriff in Springfield, Missouri. Ijames testified that officers were legally bound to arrest Wright after discovering he had an outstanding weapons violation subpoena.
Ijames also testified that it is highly unlikely that Wright would have fired if Potter had actually used her Taser. That contradicts a use of force prosecution expert, who has previously testified that using a gun or Taser on Wright would make things worse because he could be incapacitated from work and the vehicle. His car can become a weapon.
After Potter shot Wright, his car took off and seconds later crashed into an oncoming vehicle, injuring his passenger and someone in the other vehicle.
Ijames, who said he wrote the Taser policy for the International Association of Chiefs of Police, told the court on Thursday that he disagreed with the use of force prosecution expert, Seth Stoughton, who testified. that Potter was too close to Wright for Taser to be effective.
The defense also called several character witnesses for Potter, who testified that she was a moderate. Former Brooklyn center employee Colleen Fricke testified about working with Potter, saying she considers her a mentor and friend.
Fricke was asked to watch over Potter after the shooting. “I saw her curled up in the corner of the room” – alone and crying, Fricke said.
After Fricke testified that Potter was in compliance with the law, prosecutor Joshua Larson said: “In general, however, in terms of compliance with the law, you agree that following the law on one day doesn’t make you suffer. responsibility the next day.” The defense protested, blocking that line of questioning.
The case is being heard by a predominantly white jury.
