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Former Brooklyn Center Police Department officer Kim Potter was found guilty of both first and second-degree manslaughter by a Minnesota jury Thursday in the death of Daunte Wright.
Wright was killed on April 11, 2021, during a traffic stop when Potter mistook her Taser for her service weapon. Potter immediately resigned, and manslaughter charges were filed against her.
As we noted in April 2021:
Under Minnesota law, Second Degree Manslaughter is defined as follows:
A person who causes the death of another by any of the following means is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than ten years or to payment of a fine of not more than $20,000, or both:
(1) by the person’s culpable negligence whereby the person creates an unreasonable risk, and consciously takes chances of causing death or great bodily harm to another.
As a general matter, Potter could be convicted of the charge each of the following was proven by evidence beyond a reasonable doubt:
- Her conduct in withdrawing her service weapon was “culpably negligent”.
- That negligence created an unreasonable risk, and
- In doing so she consciously took the chance of causing death or great bodily harm.
Potter will not serve time on both sentences, and legal experts believe her sentence will be on the lesser end of the range due to Potter’s lack of prior criminal record and mitigating circumstances.
(This is a breaking story. Further developments will be reported on separately.)
Source: This post first appeared on RedState
