SECOND UPDATE:
Just a mere hours after getting arrested on Wednesday (April 14) for the shooting death of Daunte Wright, ex-cop Kim Potter was released from Hennepin County Jail on $100,000 bail. The judge presiding over her case also gave her the option of a bail of $50,000 if she agreed to “surrender her passport, give up any guns or ammunition and remain in Minnesota,” The New York Times reports.
USA Today previously stated that she was being held without bail.
UPDATE:
Former cop Kim Potter has been arrested and booked at Hennepin County Jail. She’s now being held without bail.
ORIGINAL STORY:
Former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter will be charged with second-degree manslaughter for the death of Daunte Wright, Washington County Attorney Pete Orput announced on Wednesday (April 14). Both Potter and Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon resigned from the department yesterday (April 13) after Potter shot Wright during a traffic stop on Sunday (April 11), killing the 20-year-old.
Earlier this week, Chief Gannon described the shooting as “an accidental discharge.” According to Gannon, officer Potter, who was a 26-year veteran of the department and a former police union president, accidentally fired her gun at Wright instead of her taser.
“This appears to me, from what I’ve viewed and the officer’s reaction and distress immediately after, that this was an accidental discharge that resulted in the tragic death of Mr. Wright,” Gannon said during a press conference.
In an emotional interview with “Good Morning America,” Wright’s parents said they do not accept police’s explanation that the fatal shooting of their son was a “mistake.”
“I cannot accept that. I lost my son,” Daunte’s father, Aubrey Wright, said. “He’s never coming back. I can’t accept that… a mistake? That’s not… that doesn’t even sound right. This officer has been on the force 26-plus years. I can’t accept that.”
Daunte’s mother, Katie Wright, also said that they have not received any information from police since the shooting. A passenger sitting in Daunte’s car video-called Katie after the shooting, which she says is the last time she saw her son.
“She pointed the phone toward the driver’s seat and my son was laying there unresponsive,” Katie said. “That was the last time that I have seen my son. That was the last time I’ve heard from my son, and I have had no explanation since then.”
On Tuesday, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Daunte died of a gunshot wound to the chest and ruled his death a homicide.