(Minneapolis) A police officer in the north of the United States, who had killed a young black motorist by claiming to have confused his electric Taser pistol and his service weapon, was sentenced on Friday to two years in prison, a lenient verdict which provoked the anger of the relatives of the victim.
Posted at 1:48 p.m.
Kim Potter, 49, was convicted of manslaughter in December. The facts had occurred during a banal traffic check in April 2021 in the suburbs of Minneapolis.
She always claimed to have pulled out her service weapon in the belief that she was using her Taser stun gun as 20-year-old Daunte Wright resisted arrest at Brooklyn Center.
PHOTO RELEASED BY BEN CRUMP, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Daunte Wright and his son, Daunte Jr. photographed on his 1st birthday.
The death of the young man had moved the United States, because he had been killed during the trial of the white police officer Derek Chauvin who, in May 2020 in Minneapolis, asphyxiated the black forties George Floyd.
“I recognize that some will disagree with the sentence,” said judge Regina Chu to justify her decision. The police officer “made a tragic mistake” while making “a legal arrest”, she explained.
“She never intended to do any harm,” she added, her voice overwhelmed with emotion, pointing out that the case was totally different from the death of George Floyd.
Kim Potter will be able to get out of prison after 16 months and serve the rest of her sentence on parole.
At the start of the hearing, prosecutor Matt Frank had demanded a sentence of just over seven years in prison for this white policewoman with 26 years of a career so far without a hitch.
The angry family
The family of Daunte Wright, who had on the contrary demanded “the most severe sentence possible”, expressed their anger at the exit of the court.
“Kim Potter killed my son and he died on April 11. Today, justice killed him again, ”launched Katie Wright.
“I was deceived, it hurts me and I am very angry,” added her husband, Arbuey Wright, believing that the former police officer had received “only a slap on the hand”.
The family’s lawyer, Ben Crump, who had also represented the relatives of George Floyd, for his part denounced “black and white justice”.
“We tried to encourage (the family) to believe there was fair justice in America, but with sentences like this, it’s hard to convince them,” he said.
The lawyer for the ex-policewoman, Paul Engh, had pleaded for a suspended sentence in view of her exemplary record of service, her remorse expressed at trial and considering that she was “not a risk for society. “, Arguments that the judge took into account.
“It was an accident, a mistake,” he said, claiming that Daunte Wright had acted “aggressively” when he was arrested while he was under a warrant.
“I’m so sorry to have hurt you so much”, repeated during the hearing Kim Potter to the address of the family of the young driver, hoping that this one “will one day be able to find a way to forgive, because hatred destroys us all”.
PHOTO COURT TV, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
During the sentencing, ex-policewoman Kim Potter expressed her regrets to Daunte Wright’s family, hoping that they “can one day find a way to forgive, because hate destroys us all”.
On April 11, 2021, the police officer and a colleague decided to check the driver of a car for a minor traffic violation. After realizing that he was the subject of an arrest warrant, they decided to arrest him.
At the trial in December, she described a “potentially dangerous” situation. The young man, who was unarmed, had not allowed himself to be handcuffed and had restarted his car to flee.
Kim Potter then drew what she said she thought was her stun gun. She had fired a single shot, mortally wounding Daunte Wright.
Gatherings enamelled with violence had taken place several evenings in a row at Brooklyn Center before the arrest of Kim Potter restored calm.