Kim Potter trial: Body cam shows officer yell ‘I grabbed the wrong f****** gun’ after shooting
Minnesota police officer Kim Potter, 49, appeared in court on Wednesday as opening arguments began in her trial for the death of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who was killed during a traffic stop in April in the city of Brooklyn Center.
At the crux of the prosecution’s opening was the assertion that Ms Potter “betrayed her badge” and displayed recklessness and negligence when she shot Wright after drawing her gun instead of a taser. The court was shown photos of the jacket Wright was wearing, which was covered in blood.
In its opening, the defence sought to cast blame on Wright, suggesting that he wouldn’t have been shot if he’d listened to Ms Potter’s demands. Attorney Paul Engh asserted that Ms Potter went to tase Wright because “he was going to kill her partner”.
As for her pulling the gun instead of the taser, Mr Engh said: “She made a mistake. This is an accident. She is a human being.”
Wright’s mother, Katie Bryant, took the stand for the defence and broke down in tears as she described her last phone call with her son.
A jury of 14, a majority of whom are white, will hear the case and consider charges of first degree and second degree manslaughter.
Prosecution says Potter ‘betrayed her badge’ in opening statement
Wednesday’s proceedings opened with Judge Regina Chu offering jury instructions, before prosecutor Elin Eldridge stepped up to deliver the state’s opening statement.
Ms Eldridge began by emphasising police officers’ duty to protect human life and accused Kim Potter of violating that duty.
Ms Potter “betrayed her badge”, the prosecutor, and betrayed Daunte Wright.
Watch the trial live:
State condemns claim Potter mistook gun for taser
In her opening for the state, prosecutor Erin Eldridge addressed the argument at the heart of the defence case that Ms Potter mistakenly drew her gun instead of her taser.
Ms Eldridge noted that Ms Potter carried her weapons in her duty belt the same way every day - with the gun on the right and the taser on the left.
With that in mind, the prosecutor suggested that drawing the wrong weapon should not have happened.
Photos of Ms Potter after the shooter showed the placement of the weapons:
State shows video of moment Potter shot Wright
After describing the events on April 11, the prosecution played body camera video showing the moment Ms Potter shot Wright.
She is heard yelling out: “Taser! Taser! Taser!” and then: “Holy s***, I just shot him.”
“I grabbed the wrong f***ing gun.”
‘This case is not about the intent to kill'
Ms Eldridge, the prosecutor, emphasised that the charges Ms Potter faces do not involve intent.
“This case is not about the intent to kill,” she said.
“No one will say that she wanted this to happen. No one will say that she meant to shoot her gun.
“But she pulled the trigger, she shot Daunte in the chest, and she did those things without bothering to check the weapon in her hand.”
Instead of intent, Ms Eldridge said the state’s case will focus on “recklessness and negligence”.
“Evidence will show she flouted her training and flouted [department] policy,” she said.
Potter ‘extensively trained' on risks of confusing gun with taser
Ms Eldridge spent a substantial portion of her opening explaining the training Ms Potter had to undergo annually to carry a taser.
She showed the court training materials Ms Potter would have been familiar with, which explicitly state the risk of confusing a taser with a gun.
The prosecutor also explained the difference between how guns and tasers are holstered and fired.
Wright had his 'whole adult life ahead of him’
In her opening statement, Ms Eldridge briefly described Wright as a son, brother and father who had his “whole adult life ahead of him”.
On the day of the shooting, he was pulled over while on the way to get his car cleaned at his mother’s request.
“He never made it to the car wash that day, and he never made it home,” Ms Eldridge said.
Who was Daunte Wright?
On 11 April 2021, protests over the death of George Floyd returned to the city of Minneapolis after Daunte Wright was shot dead by officer Kim Potter in Brooklyn Center, a northwestern suburb with a population of about 30,000.
As Mayank Aggarwal writes, Mr Wright’s mother said he had called her as he was being pulled over and that she heard scuffling before the call ended.
When she called back, she said, his girlfriend told her that he had been shot by police.
With jury set, Potter trial turns to opening statements
Defence casts blame on Wright
Ms Potter’s attorney Paul Engh began his opening statement for the defence by casting blame on Wright.
He reminded that the officer warned: “I’ll tase you,” seconds before the shooting, adding: “All [Wright] had to do was surrender.”
Mr Engh asserted that Ms Potter went to tase Wright because “he was going to kill her partner”.
As for her pulling the gun instead of the taser, Mr Engh said: "She made a mistake. This is an accident. She is a human being."
Potter could reasonably assume Wright had a gun, defence says
Defence attorney Paul Engh argued that it was reasonable to assume that Wright had a gun in his car because there was a warrant out for his arrest on a gun charge.
He cited a local law enforcement officer who estimated that “40 per cent” of drivers in Brooklyn Center have guns in their vehicles.
Mr Engh also noted that Ms Potter had never before in her 26-year career fired her gun.
“She never fired a gun. She never fired one shot,” he said.
He said that Ms Potter aimed to pull her taser to deescalate the situation.
Court on lunch break
The court broke for lunch just before 1.30pm after the defence concluded its closing statement.
The jury will return to hear testimony from the prosecution in an hour.
Watch the trial live: