- Former Brooklyn Center Police Sgt. Mychal Johnson testified Friday in ex-cop Kim Potter's manslaughter trial.
- Potter is charged in the shooting death of Daunte Wright during an April traffic stop.
- Johnson testified that he discreetly took ammo out of a gun in Potter's holster after another officer expressed concern Potter might harm herself.
Former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter's ex-supervisor said in court Friday that he'd taken a gun from Potter's holster and unloaded it because of concerns she might harm herself after shooting Daunte Wright.
Potter, who is white, is on trial for charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter in the April shooting death of Wright, a Black man. Potter has pleaded not guilty to both charges, and has claimed that she intended to grab her Taser, not her gun, before she fatally shot Wright in the chest.
Former Brooklyn Center Police Sgt. Mychal Johnson, who was present during the traffic stop where Potter shot Wright, testified in Potter's trial on Friday.
Footage from Johnson's body camera that was played in court showed Potter collapsing to the ground after shooting Wright, saying, "I'm going to prison." Potter then stands up and walks to a fence a few feet away, which she leans against as she repeatedly says, "Oh my god! What am I going to do," according to the footage.
The footage shows Johnson approach Potter and ask the officer to hand him her gun, to which Potter responds, "just let me kill myself Mike."
"No, that's not happening Kim," Johnson responds.
According to a media pool report, Potter shook and cried before burying her head in her hands as the body camera footage played in the courtroom.
Johnson testified that he went on to take Potter's gun from her holster, and put his gun in its place, because of "her mental state of not knowing what she might do."
"I knew that her firearm was a piece of evidence at that time," Johnson said in court. "So I removed her firearm and put it in my holster, and put my gun in her holster, just so that that evidence was preserved."
Another officer, Colleen Fricke, had told Johnson that she was afraid Potter might hurt herself, Johnson testified. The former sergeant's body camera footage showed Fricke ask Johnson, "can we mute this," before the audio cuts out on the footage.
Johnson testified that as Potter sat in the back of a squad car, he approached her and "discreetly asked" if he could take his firearm from her holster.
"I was able to turn away from her with my firearm, remove the magazine from it, and the one round that was in the chamber," without Potter seeing, Johnson told the court.
Potter faces a maximum of 25 years in prison if convicted on both charges.