A broken mother and a police chief who admits he has no answers: The fallout from the death of Daunte Wright
A community reacts to yet another police killing of an unarmed Black man, writes Andrew Buncombe in Brooklyn Center


A brotherās face taut with grief, a mother struggling for words.
A police chief with no proper answers, and yet also no regret about firing tear gas and rubber bullets at crowds of protesters. And a community once again angry, anxious and exhausted. Sick and tired, of being sick and tired.
This was a snapshot of the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center, a day after the fatal shooting of an unarmed young Black man, Daunte Wright, by police officers, who had pulled over the 20-year-old and his girlfriend, apparently perturbed that he was breaking the law by driving while an air freshener was attached to his driving mirror.
āHe was my brother,ā said a young man rushing into a fuel station on Monday morning, close to the scene of the shooting. A friend? āNo,ā he tells The Independent. āBlood brother. I canāt talk about it. You will have to call his mother.ā
It was Damik Wright, who just hours after the death of Daunte, was photographed, apparently with his nephew perched on his shoulders, holding the youngster high above his head, so he could see the police officers assembled as protesters gathered after the killing.
It had been Daunteās mother, Katie Wright, who had alerted the media to what had happened to her son, revealing that he had been talking to her on his mobile phone, even as his life was being ended.
āI heard scuffling, and I heard the police officers say, āDaunte, donāt runā, and then the other officer said,Ā āPut the phone downā and hung it up,ā Ms Wright said, standing in the street shortly after the incident at 14.00 local time [19.00 GMT] on Sunday.
āAnd a minute later, I called and his girlfriend answered ā that was the passenger ā and said that heād been shot, and she put it on the driverās side and my son was laying there lifeless.ā
On Monday, Brooklyn Center Police chief Tim Gannon revealed video camera footage showing three officers approaching a white vehicle parked on the side of the road. It showed one officer approaching the driverās side window, and a second walking to the passenger side. Mr Wright could be seen getting out of the car, and officers telling him there was a warrant for his arrest.
A female officer could then be heard to shout āTaser, Taserā, something police are taught to do when making use of the non-lethal electro-shot device. It rapidly becomes clear she did not then fire the Taser, but rather her handgun.Ā

āHoly s***, I just shot him,ā sheās heard to tell her fellow officers as the car drives off.
The mayor of Brooklyn Center, Michael Elliott, who moved to the US from Liberia when he was 11, said he thought the officer should be fired immediately. Yet, he said he did not have the power to compel the police chief, or the city manager, to do so.
āAs I watch the video and listenĀ to the officerās commands it isĀ my belief that the officer hadĀ the intention to deploy theirĀ Taser but instead shot MrĀ Wright with a single bullet. This appears to me, from what IĀ viewed, and the officerāsĀ reaction in distress immediatelyĀ after, that this was anĀ accidental discharge,ā said Mr Gannon.
He said the female officer, who has not yet been identified, was very experienced and was on administrative leave, while an independent probe was carried out by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

He added: āIām not in the mind of the officer. I can only see what youāre seeing. I can couple that with much of the training that I have received and thatās why I m believing it to be an accidental discharge.ā
He later added: āI think we can watch the video and ascertain whether she will be returning.ā
The Independent asked him why police officers in the US repeatedly killed young Black men and other people of colour, at a vastly disproportionate rate. āI donāt have an answer to that question.ā
Yet, activists did have an answer. Several of them attended the press conference that at times turned heated, and pressed the police chief, not only over the shooting dead of the young man, but the decision to fire tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters the previous night, and to turn off the street lights, something some said made demonstrators very vulnerable.
Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told reporters he believed the video he and everyone else had just watched upstairs in the police station, showed evidence not of a mistake, but murder. He said the officer should be brought before the courts on Tuesday morning
āIn any other profession, sheād had been kicked off the job immediately,ā he said.Ā
Referring to the National Guard troops that had been deployed at the police station and across the entire Twin Cities, he added: āAt this moment that police officer is protected, not only by her own police chief, but the system. And not only that, the entire military that is outside right now, is protecting a killer police officer.ā
He said that the police chief and the city manager, Curt Boganey, should also be fired for failing to deescalate the situation on Sunday night.
Brooklyn Center sits barely 16km (10 miles) north of the centre of Minneapolis, and no more than 24km (15 miles) from where George Floyd was killed after being arrested by officers from that force last May. It it also just a short distance from the location of any number of shootings of young people of colour by officers in the Twin Cities in recent years ā Jamar Clark, Philando Castile, Kobe Dimock-Heisler, Mario Benjamin, Isak Aden.Ā
The Star Tribune newspaper keeps a database of every officer-involved shooting since 2000. Updated overnight with the details of Mr Wrightās death, it stood at 207.Ā
Mr Hussein claimed Minnesota was the most racist state in America ā āracism with a smileā. The world may have long ago given up on any idea that Minneapolis, a Democratic stronghold, was progressive when it came to race relations, but nevertheless the Tribuneās database made for gloomy reading on a day already etched grey.
āI want to say that our hearts are aching right now, we are in pain right now,ā said the mayor, who on Monday afternoon was given direct control of the police department in a vote by the city council.Ā
āAnd we recognise that this couldnāt have happened at a worse time, we recognise that this is happening at a time when our community, when all of America, indeed, all of the world, is watching.ā
In Washington DC, Joe Biden said he had watched the footage, yet urged people to be calm
āWe do know that the anger, pain and trauma amidst the Black community is real,ā he said in the Oval Office. āBut that does not justify violence and looting.ā
Authorities said a curfew would be imposed overnight in the Twin Cities area, even as protesters planned a vigil.
Reports suggested that Daunte Wright had only been given his vehicle by his family two weeks ago, and that he was on the way to the car wash when he was pulled over, and that police discovered there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest. After he was a shot, his vehicle rolled forward two more blocks before hitting another car.
On Sunday, the junction close to where he was killed was filled with protesters, who wrote his name onto the street. On Monday morning, the spot was quiet, and two women, Taycier Elhindi, and Emma Lutten, left flowers and candles, close to a tree that was still wrapped in police tape.
āWe just wanted to show our respects,ā said Ms Elhindi, founder of a group called Visual Black Justice.Ā
Daunte Wrightās mother, Katie Wright, had demanded justice for her son, even as his body still lay in the road. On Monday morning, she told The Independent she was heading to the police station.Ā
How was she was bearing up? āAbout as well as can be expected.ā