- A jury found Kim Potter, a former police officer, guilty of manslaughter on Thursday.
- Potter said she mistook her gun for her Taser when she fatally shot Daunte Wright in a traffic stop.
- Potter now faces a prison sentence of up to 25 years.
A 12-person jury on Thursday found Kim Potter, a former Minnesota police officer, guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of Daunte Wright.
Potter faced first- and second-degree manslaughter charges after fatally shooting Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop on April 11. The charges together carry a prison term of up to 25 years.
Police body-camera footage showed Potter, who later resigned from the force, say, "Taser!" before shooting Wright in the chest. Potter and her defense attorneys said the officer intended to grab her Taser instead of her gun, which was holstered on the opposite side of her body, when she shot Wright in Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minneapolis.
Wright's death came during the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murder in the death of George Floyd. Floyd's killing in May 2020 sparked protests against racial injustice and police brutality across the country throughout that summer.
Prosecutors and Potter's defense selected a majority-white jury for her manslaughter trial.
Potter's defense argued that the officer was justified in using force against Wright, based on the claim that another officer who was leaning into the vehicle from the passenger side could've been hurt if Wright had successfully driven away.
But the state called a use-of-force expert who said Potter's use of deadly force during the traffic stop was "excessive and inappropriate." The defense called its own expert witness who said Potter's decision to try to stun Wright was "consistent" with Taser training.
Defense attorney Earl Gray told members of the jury that they should note that the state's witness worked in law enforcement only briefly and hadn't worked in the field for 15 years, while the defense's use-of-force expert boasted a career of more than 40 years in the area and was still practicing.
Potter took the witness stand in her own defense and apologized through tears for shooting Wright. She told the jury it was her trainee officer, Anthony Luckey, who made the decision to pull over Wright's car, and that she probably wouldn't have pulled Wright over on her own.
"I'm sorry it happened!" Potter said on the stand when prosecutor Erin Eldridge asked her why she didn't try to save Wright's life after the shooting.
Eldridge told Potter, "You were focused on what you had done because you had just killed somebody," which caused Potter to break down in court. Potter apologized and said she "never wanted to hurt anybody."