Simple mistake or serious negligence?
The trial of a white policewoman who, believing she was using her electric Taser gun, had shot dead a young African-American with her service weapon, began Wednesday, December 8 in Minneapolis, where this drama reopened the wounds of the murder of George Floyd.
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Kim Potter, 49, is on trial for manslaughter.
On April 11, 2021, this veteran agent had killed Daunte Wright, 20, in Brooklyn Center, in the suburb of this large city in the north of the United States.
The drama had a strong impact because it had arisen during the trial of white policeman Derek Chauvin who, in May 2020 in Minneapolis, asphyxiated George Floyd, a black man of 46 years.
The ordeal of the forties had initiated huge anti-racist demonstrations around the world.
A dossier on "the neglect of risk"
Almost a year later, the death of Daunte Wright had rekindled tensions in Minneapolis and protests peppered with violence had taken place several nights in a row. Kim Potter's arrest brought calm, but the city remained on edge until Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 years in prison. The policewoman's trial takes place in the shadow of this historical precedent: it takes place in the same court, with the same prosecutors and certain joint lawyers.
After ten days devoted to the selection of the jury, which has only one black person, the debates began with the presentation of the main lines of the prosecution and the defense. The facts are not disputed: Kim Potter and two colleagues had stopped the car of Daunte Wright for a banal traffic control. After realizing that he was subject to an arrest warrant for a weapons offense, they decided to arrest him.
The young man, who was unarmed, had tried to flee.
To dissuade him, Kim Potter had drawn what she thought was his electric pistol.
On a recording of the scene, we hear him shout "
Taser
" several times, before firing.
"
She is not being prosecuted for intentional homicide
," said prosecutor Erin Eldridge from the outset, but it is not "
an unfortunate error
" either: "
This file relates to the reckless handling of a weapon, on the negligence of the risk
”by a policewoman with 26 years of experience, she asserted.
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Kim Potter "
did what she had to do to protect a colleague
" who risked being swept away by Daunte Wright's car, retorted his lawyer Paul Engh.
Under the effect of "
stress
", "
she made a mistake, it was an accident.
He's a human being,
”he added, comparing her to a surgeon who, after 100 operations, can still be wrong.
The policewoman should be called to the witness stand in a few days.
The verdict is expected by the end of the year.