Kim Potter was convicted Thursday of shooting the black man Daunte Wright. The white former cop is guilty of manslaughter, according to a twelve-member jury. It took the members 27 hours to reach that verdict, write various American media. The judge will announce her sentence at a later hearing. She will probably have to go to jail for years: manslaughter carries a prison sentence of between six and eight years. Prosecutors have demanded a higher sentence.
In April of this year, Potter shot Wright dead in a Minneapolis suburb. The unarmed man resisted violently when arrested for a traffic violation. The officer’s chief of police stated that Potter had intended to use a taser, but mistakenly grabbed a firearm and shot Wright. The victim’s family never believed that argument. According to the relatives, the officer was guilty of ethnic profiling and was guided by racist prejudices. A few days after the incident, Potter and her chief of police resigned.
The incident caused a stir in Minneapolis; Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets the day after the accident. They called for an independent investigation into Wright’s death. They received support from former President Barack Obama, who stated that American police and enforcement policy had to be overhauled. The protests later escalated into riots, violence and looting in the suburb of Minneapolis, the city where George Floyd was also killed in a violent arrest.
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