On Sunday, April 11, Daunte Wright was killed by police officer Kimberly Potter in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis near where George Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020.
Wright was pulled over by the police at a traffic intersection for expired tags. A background check revealed that Wright had an arrest warrant for a gross misdemeanor weapons charge, meaning that he violated weapons laws in the past. Officers proceeded to arrest Wright. He had stepped outside of the car and the officers had pulled out handcuffs when he got back in the car. Bodycam footage shows that during a brief struggle, one officer yelled, "Taser! Taser! Taser!" while Potter pulled out a handgun instead of a taser and shot Wright in the side. Wright shut his car door and drove off but crashed into another car shortly afterward. Potter can be heard saying, "I just shot him!" The shot was later called an "accidental discharge" by police officials.
Photos from the New York Times
Potter, an officer of 26 years at the Brooklyn Center Police Department in Minnesota and mother of two, resigned from the department. In Potter's own words, "I believe it is in the best interest of the community, the department, and my fellow officers if I resign immediately." Tim Gannon, former chief of the department, also resigned.
Potter has been charged with second-degree manslaughter which, according to Minnesota law, is given for a "person's culpable negligence whereby the person creates an unreasonable risk, and consciously takes chances of causing death or great bodily harm to another." Her preliminary hearing will be on May 17.
Wright's parents, Aubrey and Katie Wright, appeared publicly to demand accountability in response to their son's death. Wright's mother, distraught, said, "There's never going to be justice for us," describing the reality that, though the legal justice process progresses in Potter's trial, her son will never be coming home.
In the week following Wright's death, hundreds of people gathered daily in Brooklyn Center to protest for justice and police reform. Protests have been sparked across the U.S. in response to Wright's death, but also over the death of 13-year-old Mexican American Adam Toledo, who was shot by a police officer on March 29. Just as the protests over George Floyd's death quickly spread across the U.S., protests over Wright's and Toledo's deaths have been sparked in major cities including Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Brooklyn Center protests have turned violent, leading to increased protester arrests. Demonstrators have vandalized property near the police department and law enforcement officers have used force to contain them in response. Demonstrators have repeatedly called for justice, shouting, "no justice, no peace," the same phrase shouted during six weeks of daily protests in Chattanooga this past summer.
In addition to the demands made for justice in response to Wright's death, specific calls have also been made for police reform that might reduce policing-related deaths. Reforms might include establishing standardized police training, increasing time and rigor of training, and funding research to determine means to reduce implicit biases, including racial bias, among law enforcement personnel.
Reducing these biases is relevant because race, age and gender play a significant role in determining how policing is accomplished and who is targeted. Daunte Wright is one of many Black men to make national news after being shot and killed by a police officer; in fact, Black men between the ages of 20 and 35 are the most likely of any demographic in the U.S. to be shot and killed by police. Perceived racial inequality is a significant source of socioemotional unhealth, a trend increasingly proven to be the norm in the fields of social science and public health.
Chattanooga has taken some of its own steps toward police reform in response to the killing of George Floyd. Chattanooga officers are now required by the Chattanooga Police Department in the 'Duty to Intervene' clause of the ADM-16 Code of Conduct to intervene if they see unlawful or improper behavior, such as police brutality. Under the ADM-05 Use of Force policy, Chattanooga officers are required to give a warning before shooting. Disciplinary action holds the officers to these policies.
Readers interested in learning more about the Chattanooga police and legal system might find it helpful to begin by attending periodic city council meetings to learn about public planning, development and resource allocation. As a department under the city government, funding and development of the local police force is discussed in city council meetings.
City council meetings are open to the public, as stated in the Chattanooga City Council mission statement: "The mission of the Chattanooga City Council is to promote an ethical and inclusive environment that both enhances and sustains the well-being of all the people. The Council will accomplish this by encouraging citizen input and participation at all levels of City government."
The date of Kimberly Potter's hearing is just weeks away. As the legal process unfolds, Wright's family grieves his death.