Policewoman Kimberly Potter was found guilty of manslaughter after shooting Duante Wright during a traffic stop. It’s about time white people stop killing non-whites.
Maybe it was a mistake, maybe it was not, but a non-white person is dead for a stupid traffic violation.
A 12-member jury found Kimberly Potter, 49, guilty of first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in the death of the 20-year-old Duante Wright who she killed with a bullet to the chest.
Caught on Kimberly Potter’s body camera, the basic facts of the incident were not in dispute. Both prosecutors and defense attorneys agree that Kimberly Potter mistakenly drew the wrong weapon and never meant to kill Daunte Wright.
At issue was whether the jury would find her actions to be reckless in violation of the state’s manslaughter statutes, or consider the incident to be a tragic mistake.
To secure a conviction on the first-degree manslaughter charge, prosecutors were required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Kimberly Potter caused Wright’s death while committing the misdemeanor offense of recklessly using a firearm.
For the second-degree manslaughter, the jury was required to find Kimberly Potter guilty of “culpable negligence,” meaning she created an “unreasonable risk and consciously” took a chance of causing Daunte Wright death or serious bodily harm.
Police need to be trained on treating people of color the same way they treat white people, and where there is a resistance to comply with their orders, their first instinct should not be to kill or tease the suspect.