The police officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, has resigned.
In a letter to city officials, Kim Potter, 48, wrote: “I have loved every minute of being a police officer and serving this community to the best of my ability, but I believe it is in the best interest of the community, the department, and my fellow officers if I resign immediately,” the St Paul Pioneer Press reported on Tuesday.
Ms Potter killed Mr Wright on Sunday during a traffic stop in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center, shooting him with her pistol after he struggled for a moment with officers. Police body camera video indicates she may have believed she was holding her Taser stun gun, not her service weapon.
The killing sparked massive protests across the Minneapolis area on Sunday and Monday, even as local officials tried to impose curfews on Monday night.
“I hope this can bring some calm to the community,” Brooklyn Center mayor Mike Elliott said on Monday.
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Brooklyn Center police chief Tim Gannon also resigned on Tuesday.
Daunte Wright’s family called for Ms Potter to face the highest level of prosecution.
“Put her in jail, like they would with any one of us,” Mr Wright’s cousin Nyesha Wright said at a press conference with members Mr Wright’s and George Floyd’s families on Tuesday.
The family has retained Ben Crump, a high-profile civil rights lawyer who is also representing Mr Floyd’s family and them helped negotiate a $27 million settlement with the city of Minneapolis last month.
On Tuesday, through a flurry of snow, Mr Crump commented on the resonances between the two cases during a press conference.
“It is unbelievable,” Mr Crump said. “It is just something I could not fathom, that in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a suburb, ten miles from where the Chauvin trial in regard to George floyd was taking place, that a police officer would shoot and kill another unarmed black man.”
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the shooting much as it did Mr Floyd’s death last year, and charges could come as early as this week.
Mayor Elliot has asked Governor Tim Walz for Daunte Wright’s case be reassigned to the office of the attorney general of Minnesota.
Mr Elliott said the move would ensure transparency and continue to build trust in the community.
