After three-and-a-half days of deliberation, the jury has reached a decision in the case of Kim Potter, a white former Minneapolis-area police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist.
Potter was found guilty on both charges of manslaughter she was facing for mistakenly grabbing her gun instead of her Taser before pulling the trigger during an April 2021 traffic stop with Mr Wright. She had pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charges against her.
The case was seen by many as a test of whether the justice system will hold police accused of excessive force accountable.
Mr Wright’s killing occurred in April while another white officer, former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin, was on trial for the murder of George Floyd just miles away. The shooting set off another round of large-scale civil rights protests in the Twin Cities, after a summer of unrest in 2020.
