MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The suburban Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright testified at her manslaughter trial Friday that she wouldn’t have pulled over his car if she hadn’t been training another officer and that she hadn’t planned to use deadly force that day.
Under questioning by a prosecutor, Kim Potter sobbed during her sometimes emotional testimony, saying at times “I didn’t want to hurt anybody,” and later, “I’m sorry it happened.”
Potter was the final witness before the defense rested at the end of the second week of testimony. She said she shot Wright during the April 11 in Brooklyn Center in a moment of chaos after he tried to leave the scene as she and other officers were trying to arrest him on an outstanding warrant for a weapons violation.
Potter, 49, said she meant to use her Taser to subdue Wright when he pulled away from the officers and got back into his car, but shot him once with her handgun instead.
Potter’s attorneys argued that she made a mistake but also would have been justified in using deadly force if she had meant to because another officer was at risk of being dragged by Wright’s car. Potter testified that she decided to use her Taser because of the scared look she saw one of the other two officer’s eyes.