The first day in the manslaughter trial of Kimberly Potter, the former Minnesota police officer who said she mistook her gun for a Taser when she killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop got underway on Thursday December 10.
via: Revolt
Taking the stand, Katie Bryant recalled the final moments she saw her son – over video call just after he had been shot.
Bryant said she video called her son after losing connection with him in their audio phone call. She said she saw her son’s lifeless body sitting in his car’s driver’s seat when a woman, presumably Wright’s passenger, screamed out, “They shot him!”
“My son was laying there,” Bryant said through tears. “He was unresponsive and he looked dead.”
According to CBS Minnesota, lawyers presented body camera footage of the shooting, which showed Bryant arriving to the scene and asking cops why her son had been shot. On Thursday, Bryant said she knew a body underneath a sheet at the scene was her son’s because she recognized his tennis shoes.
“I wanted to comfort my baby,” she said. “I wanted to hold him. I wanted to protect him because that’s what mothers do.”
Prosecutors have repeatedly played body camera footage from the shooting, which hears Potter yelling, “Taser!” before firing her handgun. In their opening statement on Wednesday (Dec. 8), prosecutors pointed out that Potter is a 26-year veteran of the police department and argued she’s had enough training and experience not to confuse her Taser with a gun.
“This is exactly what she had been trained for years to prevent,” they said. “But on April 11, she betrayed her badge and she failed Daunte Wright.”
Defense attorneys, however, countered that Potter made a mistake, saying, “Police officers are human beings.” Potter is charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter, which don’t require proof that she intended to kill Wright.
Potter has told the court she will testify in her defense. Wright, who was unarmed, was initially pulled over for allegedly having expired license plate tags and an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror.
Alayna Albrecht-Payton Daunte’s girlfriend also testified that she tried to stop his bleeding with a belt as he gasped for air.
