Kim Potter Gets 2 Years In Prison For Accidental Shooting of Daunte Wright
From the start Potter expressed remorse for her error in firing her pistol when she meant to fire her Taser. Wright’s mother rejected the tearful apology: “White women’s tears trump justice”
Former Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, Officer Kim Potter was sentenced to two years in prison for the manslaughter conviction in the death of Daunte Wright.
As you will recall from our extensive trial coverage, Potter accidentally fired her firearm when she meant to fire her Taser.
You can watch the entire proceeding here.
Daunte Wright’s mother gave a statement:
Potter also gave a statement:
Potter was sentenced to 2 years:
The NY Post (h/t Right Scoop) summarizes the statements, including a post-hearing statement by Wright’s mother:
“This is one of the saddest cases I’ve had on my 20 years on the bench,” Judge Regina Chu said Friday. “This is a cop who made a tragic mistake.”
Potter will be eligible for supervised release after 16 months in prison, Chu ruled.
The sentence angered Wright’s parents, his father calling it “a slap on the wrist.” Prosecutors had asked Chu to give Potter a seven year bit.
Chu was quick to differentiate Potter from other officers convicted in recent killings, most notably Derek Chauvin, the officer convicted of murder for kneeling on George Floyd
“She never intended to hurt anyone,” Chu said of Potter. Had Potter in fact pulled her Taser, Chu said, that use of force would have been legitimate….
She addressed Katie Wright, Daunte’s mother, directly.
“Katie, I understand a mother’s love, and I am sorry I broke your heart. My heart is broken for all of you.”
“Earlier when you said that I didn’t look at you during the trial, I don’t believe I had a right to.”
“I am so sorry that I hurt you so badly,” she said, her voice breaking.
“He is not more than one thought away from my heart,” Potter said of Wright. “And I have no right for that, for him to be in my heart.” …
At a press conference following the sentencing, however, Wright’s mother said she found Potter insincere.
“White women’s tears trump justice,” Katie Wright, who is also white, said. “I thought my white-woman tears would be enough.”
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Comments
Honestly, this looks like “female privilege” (to quote a leftist term). Two years for shooting someone accidentally, but Chauvin is involved in the accidental death of Floyd and he gets 22.5 years?
“She never intended to hurt anyone,”
Neither did Chauvin.
The Chauvin case was dueling experts contesting how a certain saint George died, and if the force used over a sustained period of time was too much.
The Potter case was one where the facts were essentially agreed on without a major dispute but the prosecution and defense contested how much legal responsibility the defendant had due to the acknowledged mistake.
In other words the cases aren’t similar.
Danny, you are full of it. Neither person should have been tried for a crime much less convicted.
Floyd died of a drug overdose, end of story. Chauvin is a political prisoner.
Potter made an honest mistake in dealing with a dangerous thug, end of story. She is now a political prisoner.
Every cop should quit. Let Danny fend for himself.
Hear, hear.
“Honest mistake”. I’d like to see a “civilian” get off on such a defense.
Oopsie! I’m a veteran law enforcement officer allegedly trained, but I made a boo-boo!
LEO cannot on the one hand claim a monopoly on force based upon their supposed expertise, experience and training and in this instance simply say oops. As Grizz correctly notes a civilian who made a similar error would be lucky to be looking at only two years.
IMO this was as much a department failure to conduct regular sustainment training as it was Potter’s. Training costs real money and communities need to be told the truth; if we want LEO who make less errors then increasing the amount of initial and sustainment training to mitigate these types of errors will cost substantial amounts.
It was used as a defense because of the way the statute is written.
Nope. Not a fair comparison. Civilians are not the police and operate under an entirely different set of rules, legally and morally.
The officer has a job to do and while carrying out that job, arresting a violent felon resisting arrest, made a mistake. There are lots of cops that do bad things, this isn’t one of them. This is nothing more than political lynching. The officer is now a political prisoner. Any cop not resigning after these trials is nuts or just plans to keep taking their paycheck and not do the job.
Let’s be clear – if it were up to me we would fire all cops. They are used by the political leadership in this country to protect the criminals. I have little to no respect for the police anymore. About the only thing I agree with the marxist left is to defund the police in every blue run city in the country. Let those dopes that elect the corrupt people that run their cities fend for their selves.
A civilian could easily escape murder charges for killing someone due to mistake of fact, as long as the decedent isn’t one of the People Whose Lives Matter, or the killer is one, or neither is.
Murder and manslaughter both require intent.
I was explaining why this case wasn’t similar to the Chauvin Case, and why Kim Potter got a much lighter sentence.
Your free to call it female privilege all you wish, but looking into how the cases are different would give you a much more accurate sense of why the judges gave very different sentences for two cases that can’t be considered similar.
As far as it was an honest accident, yes the judge knows that, the judge in question very obviously knows the criminal statutes of her state and where the law punishes mistakes a lot better than I do, or I suspect you do. I actually think based on what I read about the case you are looking at a good judge.
Women insisted on equal opportunity and got it, this is part of that. They are not strong enough to subdue resisters so they go for tasers and guns.
With all due respect, your comment is as repulsive as the mother’s white tears comment. And neither Potter nor Chauvin committed a crime and their prosecutions were travesties. I hope Kim Potter finds peace. She should know that millions are praying for her. It appears that she has punished herself far more than the court, unjustifiably, did.
And what was repulsive about my statement that the sentences were wildly dissimilar for accidental killings of a suspect? With all due respect, you sound like an idiot for not knowing the difference between my statement and the mother’s.
Both of them were convicted for being white.
Thank you Officer Potter for taking that scumbag off the streets for good!
Wright’s mother played the race card. I’m shocked.
in other news…..daunte wright has committed no additional offenses or been arrested and released(again)
Potter should be getting a medal. Said Daunte was a negative to society. He took, never contributed.
“We’re richer for having lost him,”
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/1b/90/b6/1b90b6401efec89ffe0bf74045179372.jpg
Just when you think you can’t be more disgusted. What a piece of trash that woman is.
He still votes though.
I never thought she deserved 25 for this but….this sentence is laughable.
hell as an MP if I “accidentally” shot someone (1986-1989) I’d get a shitload more time than that.
only case I dealt with like that (mistake during apprehension) was 8 years confinement.
and believe me Leavenworth is lot harder than system she’s going into.
after all the years she had on the job she should have been able to grab the CORRECT weapon and light him up like a gasoline covered candle.
The sentence is laughable based on Judge Chu listing reasons why Potter didn’t commit a crime before handing it down.
I believe the light sentence is in part to limit the utility of an appeal. She had use of force justification litigation on her side that made grounds for a likely successful appeal I believe. I think she did commit involuntary manslaughter (in layman’s terms) and is being sentenced for that essentially. If she can get out in 16 months, there’s not much point to an appeal.
Except she’s a cop in the slam, which comes with its own risks.
True enough though she can request and likely be granted separation from general population of the prison to mitigate those risks.
An appeal eliminates the felony conviction and associated legal disabilities, so it’s still valuable.
I think the light sentence is just because the judge found that to be what was called for in this case.
She has no grounds for appeal, you need something besides “the jury was wrong” and appeals fail at a rate of over 90%.
Potter actually does. Judge Chu made several egregious errors. She allowed the state to present cumulative evidence that had no bearing on the matter at issue, her jury instructions did not explain the legal distinction between negligence and recklessness, and during the state’s rebuttal at closing she allowed the state to go beyond the scope of the defense’s closing argument effectively giving the state a second close.
The Pros and Judge gave the jury incorrect instructions. To wit knowledge that she had her pistol was not needed to convict. How can you be reckless with no knowledge of what you are doing? Impossible. Maybe Chu realized she fucked up and is hoping to avoid an appeal.
Only 16 months.
Only 16 months.
Only 16 months.
Sure.
She should have received probation. Her career is gone and she has no future job prospects. She has been a stellar part of society who made a mistake and is not a danger to the public.
see I hurt some feelings. oh well.
Ive been there done that.
how many downvoters can say that?
the person shot does not matter, the 25+ year cop that could not tell the difference between a gun on dominant side and taser on other side matters.
either a training failure of a intellectual failure on officer part.
end of story.
been there done that,
dmacleo is perfect. Never made a mistake.
Accidents and mistakes are not criminal. When a person is in the midst of a struggle with a dangerous and violent felon that is resisting arrest the possibility of mistakes rise. Only one person is responsible for that and it isn’t the officer.
made plenty of mistakes.
none included mistaking a lethal weapon for non-lethal.
how many times you pulled a weapon on someone as an LEO?
how many times you aimed m16/m60 at someone guarding nuke/bio-chem/HE capable missiles?
bet answer to both is 0.
me…been there.
and if I fucked up I would have been in Leavenworth.
people trying to excuse her stupidity are just as fucking stupid as people trying to defend the asshole she shot.
Sorry, we’re not discussing guarding missile sites.
We’re not discussing the penalties imposed by the military when you screw up. None of that, not one bit is applicable to this case. Your experience has nothing to do with this. Zero.
An officer in the midst of a struggle with a violent felon resisting arrest made an error and pulled the wrong gun. Only one person is responsible for the officer having to pull the gun, and it isn’t the officer.
She wasn’t stupid, she made a mistake in the heat of battle. If you were honest you would admit that some of the very best military trained make mistakes in those conditions. But you’re not honest.
Yea, the answer is zero. So the fuck what?
Do you decide ahead of thine which mistakes you’re going to make, how bad these mistakes will be, and the consequences of them?
Not bad, at all
Young thug, dead
Incompetent copette, not on the force…in jail, but only for a little bit.
Libs, still raging.
Daunted mom and dad: suffering, for being lousy parents
The world returns to normal.
Were Daunte’s mother and father parents at all?
How would Daunte know? How would Mr and Mrs Daunte know? Saliva?
Michael Byrd never questioned yet alone standing on trial free as a bird.
It depends on who you shoot, a friend of the Marxists or a enemy.
Dare I suggest that the race of the killer and victim may be involved in why he never was charged or brought to trial?
I find Katie Wright’s appeal troubling. Her son was resisting a lawful arrest, there was a woman in the car who might have been the person with a protective order against him, there was a fellow officer partly inside the car and Wright likely had recently been smoking pot. It was Potter’s duty to prevent Wright from driving away.
Duante Wright was responsible for the confrontation that led to his death. He was to some extent a burden to society. When people commit crimes and are in trouble with the law, it is sad for their family. Even the parents of murderers feel compassion for their children. However, they are mindful that their children brought the consequences on themselves.
We now live in a world without reflection or compassion. Kim Potter should never have been convicted. She made a terrible mistake because she didn’t want to shoot him and thought she was holding a taser. Spare me the tears for Mrs. Wright. It is part of the terrible collapse of ordinary decency, something that is baked into progressive ideology, that she is unable to see how her son’s behavior has victimized Kim Potter.
Potter never should have been convicted. The decedent brought this on himself. Under such circumstances, an officer should only be convicted if the officer purposely availed him or herself of the opportunity to inflict injury or if he or she were grossly negligent. The heat-of-the-moment circumstances negate any reasonable conclusion of gross negligence justifying a criminal conviction,
This case is very different from the Justine Damond murder in Minneapolis 4.5 years ago. In that case the police officer had no reason for his extreme over-reaction to a woman in a night-robe approaching his vehicle.
Ira,
Does that formulation; ‘brought it on himself’ also apply to the Jan 6 protesters or the trucker protest in Canada?
What a stupid inference.
Barry,
If we accept your premise posted above that I paraphrase here; LEO have a job to do, operate under a separate legal and moral framework, then why do you not extend that same cloak to the Capital PD for Jan 6 or Ottawa PD for the truckers? In all three events LEO issued directions/orders that citizens choose to disobey and LEO then applied force to either gain compliance or eliminate the perceived threat.
For myself I think both DC and Ottawa LEO actions were unnecessary. Likewise Potter’s actions were unnecessary by her own admission. You seem to want to pick and choose when we should apply scrutiny to the actions of LEO based upon the person who is harmed. Why the inconsistency?
I’m not inconsistent at all. You try using tricks for an argument rather than logic and I choose not to respond.
You missed the part where I mentioned there are bad officers, criminal officers in fact. A murder occurred in the capitol on Jan 6th. It wasn’t an accident or a mistake, it was cold blooded murder committed by a cop.
Pretending that it is remotely similar to the accidental use of a handgun rather than a taser in the heat of a battle with a dangerous and violent felon that is resisting arrest and has been given an opportunity to be peaceful is disgraceful.
Barry,
For someone who choose not to respond you wrote a lengthy comment.
The Cop who shot Babbitt was emotionally rattled and IMO, incompetent as was IMO, Potter. The difference between the two was that Potter unintentionally used deadly force which killed Wright while Byrd intentionally used deadly force to kill Babbitt.
That difference is the very real distinction between murder and manslaughter. I can certainly respect your point of view and a few years ago, before I began to see how many times LEO use deadly force without much restraint in terms of criminal penalties, I would have likely agreed with you.
IMO, LE has become too concerned with their own safety above that of the average citizen. They are far too quick and far too willingly to carry out the orders of their political masters. See DC and Ottawa.
“The Cop who shot Babbitt was emotionally rattled and IMO, incompetent as was IMO, Potter. ”
You’re entitled to your opinion, but that is all that it is. The cop that shot Babbitt is just a murderer that knew exactly what he was doing. Emotion played no part in it just as the cover up and refusal to even investigate it is not an emotional event.
It has zero to do with this case, the officer accidentally pulling the wrong weapon. That’s all it was.
All the other appeal is just BS. Complaints about how the police actually police have no bearing on this. Those are different subjects and we may or may not agree.
For the first time in my life I am ashamed to be an American. Let’s take a stand instead of crying in our beer. Let’s gird ourselves, storm the prison and do a bust out that will make the Boston Tea Party pale in comparison. Who’s game and who’s full of fancy-pants excuses?
“This is one of the saddest cases I’ve had on my 20 years on the bench,” Judge Regina Chu said Friday. “This is a cop who made a tragic mistake.”
But I note she didn’t have the balls to suspend the verdict.
Can she do that? In a some jurisdictions, that’s simply not possible. And/But, she surely could have set aside the verdict and I think that would have been wholly justified.
Chu has a reputation as a committed leftie… at least according to a Branco cartoon published within the last couple months.
Riot avoidance?
QED.
Was there grounds for suspending the verdict?
If a judge thinks an accident that causes a death is tragic but criminal that judge more than likely is correct.
Good lord. This judge is like most of them. The law is meaningless. Rule of man.
I don’t know the legal in and outs but I sense the streets won’t be quiet this weekend.
If his mother read “insincerity” in others such as the officer or the judge, it is probably because she knows that the thuglett deserved worse than he got.
I wonder if the mother of the boy he left permanently in a state of partial life comes into the white woman tears of his mommy.
Meanwhile, Alec Baldwin still hasn’t been charged with manslaughter after he ‘accidentally’ shot & killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of ‘Rust’ last year.
I think they’re carefully trying to get the sear marks just right.
This should really be called a MISTAKEN shooting, not an ACCIDENTAL shooting.
An accidental shooting could happen any number of ways — waving a gun around, tripping and falling, snagging the trigger on something, leaving a gun in an oven and then preheating to cook a Thanksgiving turkey…
Potter aimed and intended to shoot. She simply did not know which gun she was shooting. It was a mistake of fact, not a crime at all, as codified by law.