- Daunte Wright's girlfriend was in the car when ex-police officer Kim Potter fatally shot Wright in April.
- Potter is currently being tried on manslaughter charges in Wright's death.
- Wright's girlfriend testified about the aftermath of the shooting on Thursday and said she was "the only one out of everybody who was trying to help him."
Daunte Wright's girlfriend, who was in the car when former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter fatally shot Wright, gave emotional testimony about the aftermath of the shooting on Thursday.
Potter is being tried on charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter after fatally shooting Wright during a traffic stop. Potter, who has pleaded not guilty to both charges, has said she accidentally grabbed her gun when reaching for her Taser, which was holstered on the opposite side of her body.
Police body-camera footage released after the shooting showed Potter shouting, "I'll tase you. Taser! Taser! Taser!" shortly before shooting Wright in the chest as he tried to drive his vehicle away. Wright's car then moved down the street, with him and his girlfriend Alayna Albrecht-Payton inside, before colliding with a different car.
The prosecution called Albrecht-Payton to the witness stand on Thursday. She said she could tell Wright "was just scared" when police pulled him over in April.
Albrecht-Payton testified that she couldn't remember much about what happened before the shooting, but that she did remember "hearing the boom or the bang of the gun" and then "just trying to get him up."
After Wright's car collided with another vehicle, Albrecht-Payton told the jury she started "pushing on his chest" to try and stop the bleeding. She said she looked around the car and grabbed a piece of cloth, either a "sweater or a towel or a blanket," and "put it on his chest like you see in the movies and TV shows."
"I was the only one out of everybody there that was trying to help him," Albrecht-Payton testified.
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Wright's mother, Katie Bryant, had testified on Wednesday that she video-called Wright after the shooting. Bryant said "a female" answered and pointed the camera toward Wright, who was "laying there, he was unresponsive, he looked dead."
Albrecht-Payton apologized to Wright's mother during her testimony on Thursday.
"No mom should have to see their son dead on the phone," she said.
"She was asking what happened and I was delirious and screaming, 'They just shot him,' and then I pointed the camera on him and I'm so sorry I did that," she added.
Police body-camera footage showed officers handcuffing Albrecht-Payton after the shooting
Prosecutors then played police body-camera footage for the jury that showed Albrecht-Payton seemingly in shock after the car crash. In the footage, officers pull Albrecht-Payton's purse from her hands and handcuff her. Albrecht-Payton screams that she wants to hold her purse and asks the officers why she is being handcuffed.
"You're not under arrest, just put your hands behind your back," the officer responds in the footage.
The state also entered into evidence several photos of Albrecht-Payton's facial injuries after the crash, which she said left her with a broken jaw, a "gigantic hole" in her lip, and injuries to her ear.
Potter's defense attorney, Earl Gray, questioned Albrecht-Payton on cross-examination about her and Wright's marijuana use on the morning of the shooting. She said that the couple shared a joint before driving to Wright's mother's house, but testified that it did not have any effect on her mental state, and she didn't think it had any effect on Wright's mental state either.
Gray also asked Albrecht-Payton about her previous negative encounters with police. Albrecht-Payton testified that her father was an "ex-criminal," who she saw have several negative encounters with police when she was growing up.
"We've had encounters with law enforcement before, and most times they were never good whenever it was around my dad," she told the jury.