Page 6 - Thinking Critically: Police and the Use of Force

Overview

Confronting the Police’s

Use of Deadly Force

On April 11, 2021, police offi cer Kimberly Potter, age forty-nine,
and her partner made a routine traffi c stop in Brooklyn Center,
a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota. A quick background check
revealed that the driver, a twenty-year-old African American man
named Daunte Wright, had an outstanding warrant for a weap-
ons violation. When the offi cers tried to take Wright into custody,
he suddenly jumped back into his vehicle. During a brief scuffl e,
Potter fi red one shot that struck Wright in the chest before he
drove off. Minutes later, Wright was found dead in his car a few
blocks away.
In a city shaken by the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by
a police offi cer, and the protests and riots that followed, Wright’s
killing brought an angry response. At trial months later, both the
prosecutors and the defense agreed that the shooting was ac-
cidental. Potter testifi ed that she had mistaken the fi rearm in her
hand for a less deadly Taser. A body-camera video of the shoot-
ing showed Potter reacting with shock and dismay after pulling
the trigger. But the video also showed that Potter had drawn her
Glock handgun, which weighs twice as much as a Taser, for fi ve
seconds before fi ring. On December 23, 2021, the jury found
Potter guilty on two charges of manslaughter. She was later sen-
tenced to two years in prison.
Commentators noted a change in how such cases are re-
garded. Whereas in the past, police generally have received the
benefi t of the doubt in cases of mistaken use of force, juries now

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