Washington | A white police woman on Friday described the killing of a young African-American in Minneapolis last Friday as a normal traffic control turn into “chaos” in a matter of minutes.
Read more: An American woman tried to kill a black teenager with the wrong weapon
49-year-old Kim Potter has been charged with manslaughter.
He has always claimed to have drawn his service weapon in the belief that he was using his electric taser gun when he opposed the arrest of 20-year-old Dante Wright in the center of Brooklyn on the outskirts of this big city in the north of the United States.
“We struggled not to let him run, and then it became confusing. I remember shouting ‘Daser, Daser, Daser.’ And he (his co-worker, the teacher’s note) told me I shot him,” she said before bursting into tears.
She promised not to remember the moments that followed. “I have an ambulance, I do not know why, I’m at the police station,” she said.
On a Sunday, April 11, 2021, a policewoman was on patrol with a co-worker who decided to check on a white Buick driver who had committed a minor traffic offense. Upon learning that a warrant had been issued for him, they decided to arrest him.
The police woman described the “dangerous” situation.
“Sometimes there are guns in the car, people don’t cooperate, you don’t know who you are controlling,” he explained.
The young man, who was unarmed, did not let go of his handcuffs and restarted his car to escape. Kim Potter then drew what she said to make him think it was his electric gun. In the footage, he hears Donte screaming “Daser” several times before injuring Wright.
The play had a strong impact during the May 2020 trial of white policeman Derek Chao, who strangled 46-year-old George Floyd in Minneapolis. The trial of a forty-year-old man sparked massive anti-racist protests around the world.
Before Kim Potter’s arrest was silenced, violent rallies took place in Brooklyn for several nights.
His lawyer, Paul Eng, pleads that it was the result of human error and stress because he sought to protect his co-worker.
But according to attorney Erin Eldridge, Donte Wright died of negligent handling of a weapon and the negligence of an officer with 26 years of experience.
Wright’s family lawyer Ben Crump said in a statement after Kim Potter’s testimony that “the assassination of Dante Wright (…) is completely preventable.”
“The argument she confused with his taser and his weapon is incomprehensible,” he added, condemning the policeman’s “wrong and sad choice” and the police officers’ “shortcomings in training”. Brooklyn Center.
