Kim Potter trial: Fellow officer speaks about bodycam footage, Daunte Wright's actions: LIVE UPDATES
Kim Potter, 49, has been charged with first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in Daunte Wright’s April 11 death in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. She has claimed that she accidentally grabbed a gun instead of a Taser.
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Judge Regina Chu has adjourned the court until Monday at 9 a.m. in the trial of former Brooklyn Center Police Officer Kim Potter.
The trial is currently in a lunch break, with the possibility that testimony may be over for the day as wintry weather sweeps through the region.
The National Weather Service says Minneapolis could see up to a foot of snow through Saturday morning.
Judge Regina Chu, prior to the start of testimony today, said she would be monitoring the weather and would make a decision at some point in the day.
Jurors overseeing the Minneapolis manslaughter trial for former Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, police officer Kim Potter have heard testimony from loved ones of the man whom she shot and killed last April.
So far, Daunte Wright’s mother, Katie Wright, and his girlfriend, Alayna Albrecht-Payton, have taken the stand to speak about the 20-year-old man. Albrecht-Payton was in the car at the time of the April 11 shooting and spoke to the moments surrounding Wright's death.
Minnesota is one of the rare states that allows prosecutors to call witnesses to the stand to provide character witness-type testimony under the "spark of life" doctrine.
The doctrine was established in 1985, when a defendant accused of killing a police officer argued to the Minnesota Supreme Court that the prosecutor prejudiced the jury with a speech about the officer’s childhood, his parents and his marriage. The prosecutor became so emotional the trial court had to take a recess.
The court ruled that prosecutors can present evidence that a murder victim was "not just bones and sinews covered with flesh, but was imbued with the spark of life."
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Earl Gray, one of Kim Potter’s attorneys, asks Mychal Johnson during cross-examination that after Kim Potter told Daunte Wright she would tase him, “did Daunte Wright, at any time show any sign of stopping? Giving up? Saying ‘ok, I’m done’?
“No,” Johnson replied.
“So basically, based on these videos and the conduct of Daunte Wright, as far as you are concerned – and you were there – Kimberly Potter would have had a right to use a firearm, right?” Gray also asked him.
“Yes,” Johnson said.
Former Brooklyn Center Sgt. Mychal Johnson, who is being questioned by the prosecution, said after the shooting that “I knew that her firearm was a piece of evidence at that time so I removed her firearm and put it in my holster and put my gun her holster just so that evidence was preserved.”
Bodycam footage then was shown to jurors of Johnson swapping the weapons with Potter.
"Kim, I’m going to take this but give you mine, ok?” Johnson tells her.
“Oh my God, no just let me kill myself Mike,” she responds.
“No. No that’s not happening Kim,” Johnson says to her. “I’m giving you my gun, I’m just going to hold onto yours.”
“I don’t know what happened,” Potter is heard saying as she remains distraught.
The prosecution is showing the aftermath of the Daunte Wright shooting from bodycam video taken by then-Brooklyn Center Sgt. Mychal Johnson, who currently is on the stand.
In the footage, Kim Potter repeatedly is heard saying “Oh my God!” as she lies on the ground, sobbing.
“Kim, that guy was trying to take off with me in the car,” Johnson tells her.
“Oh my God, what have I done?” Potter later is heard saying as more police arrive on-scene.
Inside the courtroom, Potter appeared to be crying when this body camera video was played to the jurors, according to Fox News' Jiovanni Lieggi.
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Witness testimony in the manslaughter trial of former Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, police Officer Kim Potter in the death of Minneapolis 20-year-old Daunte Wright, is renewing attention over the debate of police use of force and raising questions about how an officer could mistake a handgun for a stun gun.
"Every Taser course I know of emphasizes making sure you don’t inadvertently pull one when you need the other," said David Katz, a former senior special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the founder and CEO of Global Security Group. "That is why most departments use the Taser in a cross-draw position, which is separate from the strong-side holster for the regular firearm."
Betsy Brantner Smith, a retired sergeant and spokeswoman for the National Police Association, said the cross-draw position is meant to reduce risks, but mistakes still happen.
"This type of error happens," she said. "She’s not the first one and likely will not be the last to have these errors occur. They are few and far between, but they occur."
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EXCLUSIVE: It’s a victim impact statement she never got to read to Daunte Wright in court because former Brooklyn Center Police Officer Kim Potter shot and killed him in an unrelated incident before he had a chance to face a jury of his own.
The victim, who asked to have her name withheld from publication, shared the statement publicly for the first time in an interview with Fox News Digital.
"I did not feel safe living in my own apartment," she said. "I felt completely violated and disrespected on a whole nother level."
In December 2019, a high school acquaintance named Emajay Driver brought Wright over to the victim’s apartment. They hung out, drank and smoked marijuana.
But the next morning, Wright allegedly shoved a pistol in her face, choked her and tried to steal $820 she was supposed to give to her landlord for rent.
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After the jury was dismissed for the evening on Thursday, defense attorney Paul Engh motioned for a mistrial on the grounds that the prosecution has spent “unending” time on irrelevant issues.
"The defense has expressed a concern about the presentation of the state's case. The issue in our case, here, is the thought process of Kimberly Potter at the moment that she yelled, 'Taser, taser, taser,' and pulled the trigger of her gun. We have spent the day, rather, on an accident that was caused by Daunte Wright's excessive speed," Engh told Judge Regina Chu.
"I didn't see any evidence directed towards the proof of guilt today, but rather evidence of sordid pictures and prejudicial impacts that had little relevance."
Prosecutor Matthew Frank argued that the evidence the state has presented is relevant because they are seeking a lengthier sentence based on aggravating factors.
"She was an officer at the time and her role as an officer... presented a violation of trust in authority, and we alleged that as one of the aggravating factors," Frank said. "The other is that her conduct presented danger to more than just the individuals in the immediate area. It presented a greater danger to a number of people."
The prosecution called Denise Lundgren-Wells, the daughter of an elderly couple involved in the car crash with Wright. Lundgren-Wells testified that her father’s health decline “accelerated quickly” after the crash and he is currently in hospice care.
Two police officers and two paramedics who responded to the shooting and subsequent crash testified in the afternoon on Thursday.
Chu denied the motion for a mistrial, telling the attorneys that “we’re really getting ahead of ourselves now.” -Paul Best
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