After being arrested, the police officer who shot a young black man near Minneapolis has been charged with ‘manslaughter’, Wednesday April 14, then released at the end of the afternoon, against the payment of a bond fixed at 100,000 dollars (83,000 euros).
Kim Potter will appear before a judge on Thursday for a preliminary hearing, according to local media. The 48-year-old policewoman opened fire on Sunday on Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old African-American, during a banal traffic check in Brooklyn Center (Minnesota), in the north of the United States. She then assured that she had confused her service weapon with her Taser electric pistol.
“We intend to prove that Constable Potter neglected her responsibility to protect the public when she used her service weapon instead of her Taser”, commented the services of the prosecutor Peter Orput. The police officer resigned on Tuesday, as did the Brooklyn Center police chief. She now faces up to ten years in prison.
Three nights of protests
The tragedy, which occurred during the trial for the murder of African-American George Floyd, was followed by three nights of demonstrations punctuated by violence. Despite the establishment of a curfew and significant reinforcements, a tense face-to-face still pitted activists against the police on Tuesday evening, and 78 people were arrested.
Daunte Wright’s family took note on Wednesday of the lawsuit against the policewoman, but criticized her justifications: “Officer with 26 years of experience knows the difference between a Taser and a gun”wrote their attorney Ben Crump in a statement. “We will continue to fight for justice for Daunte, his family and all marginalized people of color. We won’t stop until we get real police and justice reforms. »