Former Minnesota police officer, Kim Potter, who was convicted of accidentally killing 20-year-old Daunte Wright after mistaking her firearm for her stun gun, was freed from prison Monday, April 24.
Potter was released from the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee at 4 a.m. on Monday, the department said, noting the early hour was due to safety concerns and the potential for violent protests outside the facility.
Potter was convicted of two counts of manslaughter in the killing of 20-year-old Wright, an unarmed Black man, during a 2021 traffic stop near Minneapolis. Wright was pulled over for having expired tags and for a hanging air freshener.
Potter will be on supervised release for the remaining third of her sentence, in accordance with Minnesota law, which doesn’t provide time off for good behavior, the corrections department said. Potter’s supervised release expires in December.
Potter’s attorney, Earl Gray, told CNN the former officer with 26 years of experience has no plans to return to Minnesota and will live in Wisconsin.
Wright’s mother, Katie, said she was “dreading” Potter’s release and is struggling to find peace. She said she suffered a stroke that left her temporarily with blurred vision following the stress of Potter’s trial and conviction.
“Some say I should forgive to be at peace but how can I? I am so angry.
She is going to be able to watch her kids have kids and be able to touch them,” Katie Wright told CNN. “I am always scared I am going to forget my son’s voice. It gave us some sense of peace knowing she would not be able to hold her sons. She has two. I can’t hold my son.”
She said Potter not being able to serve as a police officer again, due in part to her conviction, has given her “a sense of peace.”
“She will never be able to hurt anybody as a police officer again,” Katie Wright said. “That is the only sense of peace we get as a family.”
Potter wept when she testified during her 2021 trial, apologizing and insisting she “didn’t want to hurt anybody.”
“I was very distraught. I just shot somebody. I’m sorry it happened,” Potter cried as a prosecutor asked her about her behavior moments after the fatal shooting. Potter testified she had been trained with a Taser since 2002 and testified she received a new model days before the April 11, 2021 shooting.
Part of the settlement agreement requires Brooklyn Center Police officers undergo implicit bias training. The city’s newly elected mayor, April Graves, confirmed that training still hasn’t happened, though, she says, it’s in the works.
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