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| -War on Police- |
| Kim Potter trial: Minneapolis jury finds ex-police officer guilty in death of Daunte Wright |
| 2021-12-23 |
| [FoxNews] Former Minnesota police officer found guilty on all charges in the death of Daunte Wright. The jury has found former Minneapolis-area police Officer Kim Potter guilty of first and second degree manslaughter charges in the April 2021 death of Daunte Wright. Kim Potter, 49, could face a maximum sentence of 15 years for the first-degree manslaughter charge, while the second-degree charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. Judge Regina Chu ordered Potter to be taken into custody and held without bail. She also praised the jurors as "heroes of the judicial system." The judge rejected a request from the defense team that Potter be allowed to remain out on $100,000 bail before sentencing. They argued that it's Christmas season and Potter is a devout Catholic, but prosecutors noted that Potter's family had moved out of state. The jury, comprised of six men and six women, had spent over 27 hours deliberating. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said outside the courthouse that "we have a degree of accountability for Daunte’s death," but that he also felt for Potter. "She is going from being an esteemed member of the community, an honored member of a noble profession, to being convicted of a serious crime," Ellison said. "I don’t wish that on anyone, but it was our responsibility as the prosecutor, as ministers of justice, to pursue justice wherever it led, and the jury found the facts." Potter had 26 years of experience as a police officer on April 11 when she says she mistook her handgun for her Taser and fatally wounded 20-year-old Wright. The 26-year police veteran and other officers, including a trainee, were attempting to arrest Wright when he tried to get back into his vehicle, video shows. The officers had attempted to stop Wright and then tried to detain him after learning of a warrant for his arrest. Wright, 20, can be seen in a police video climbing back into the driver’s seat of a vehicle as the officers scuffle with him. In Potter’s body camera footage from the shooting, she can be heard yelling, "I’ll tase you!" and "Taser! Taser! Taser!" before firing her handgun. She can then be heard saying, "I grabbed the wrong f------ gun," followed by: "Holy s---, I just shot him." Judge Chu scheduled Potter to be sentenced on Feb. 18. She faces up to 15 years in prison for the first-degree manslaughter charge and up to 10 years in prison for the second-degree manslaughter charge. The prosecution has said they'll seek an upward departure from sentencing guidelines due to aggravating factors, arguing that Potter's actions were a danger to others and that she abused her authority as a police officer. Related: Kim Potter: 2021-12-10 Gov. Walz Prepares [Minnesota] National Guard Amid Kim Potter Trial, Maine Gov. Calls Out Guard for Hospitals Kim Potter: 2021-12-08 BLM protester charged with intimidating judge extradited to Minnesota Kim Potter: 2021-12-01 In downtown Minneapolis at a BLM protest against ex-officer Kim Potter, the rioters attack and chase a vehicle in the street |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #11 Not defending Potter's screwup but once again, the vibrant youth & coulda-been-Soetoro's-son & Honor student has a colorful background |
| Posted by: Merrick Ferret 2021-12-23 20:32 |
| #10 I'm done with 'less than lethal'. Remove all of it. If you resist, you get shot, you stop getting shot when you stop resisting. We also need to bring back the three strikes law but it needs to be 3 strikes and you get hauled out behind the court house, tied to a stake and 4 guys with AA-12's loaded with Frag-12 rounds turn you into confetti. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2021-12-23 20:15 |
| #9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZUW-BBPGM0 The Legal Problem with Kim Potter's GUILTY Verdict - From a Minnesota Lawyer |
| Posted by: newc 2021-12-23 19:09 |
| #8 The way to avoid accidents is not by being careful, but by arranging things so they can't be done wrong. The original formulation of Murphy's Law was "If there is a way to do it wrong, somebody will". The f**k-up here was wearing both the taser and the gun on the same side which created the possibility of grabbing the wrong one. It is easy to win a round of "Taser? or Gun?" with both weapons laying on the table. But this was real life, in the heat of the moment, with the perp trying to drive off with 2 officers hanging out of the car. I suspect Officer Potter's hand was much more familiar with drawing her gun than her taser. The prosecution has said they'll seek an upward departure from sentencing guidelines due to aggravating factors, arguing that Potter's actions were a danger to others and that she abused her authority as a police officer. That is Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (bees pee upon him) playing to the cheap seats. Just more fodder for the race war. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2021-12-23 18:48 |
| #7 /\ But, but, but that strike was most certainly 'green lighted' by the White House. Different rules apply. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2021-12-23 17:32 |
| #6 Drone striking a guy and his kids unloading water bottles in Afghanistan is extreme negligence too. How many people are going to prison for that? |
| Posted by: jpal 2021-12-23 17:28 |
| #5 So "didn't mean to" carries more or less weight depending on whether your name is or isn't Alec Baldwin. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2021-12-23 17:27 |
| #4 seems like a bad verdict since she clearly didn't mean to shoot on the other hand I've never heard of anyone mistaking a gun for a taser so the negligence may have been extreme |
| Posted by: Lord Garth 2021-12-23 17:23 |
| #3 I don't have mixed feelings about it (I'll give her the benefit of the doubt) but I'll pass on what my roomie said about it (he's got 43 years in on a local police force) - 'there's no way you go to pull your service weapon and not know the difference between it being a gun or a taser'. |
| Posted by: Raj 2021-12-23 17:01 |
| #2 If you don't have mixed feelings about this, you aren't looking at it very closely. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2021-12-23 16:45 |
| #1 I'm sure all the cops in Minneapolis are going to bed tonight with a warm fuzzy feeling about putting their lives on the line every day. |
| Posted by: jpal 2021-12-23 16:22 |