United States: an American policewoman tried for having killed a young African-American by "confusing" her Taser with her pistol

Simple mistake or serious negligence?

This is the question that judges and jurors will try to answer during the trial of a white policewoman who, believing she was using her electric Taser gun, shot dead a young African-American with her service weapon, which began in Minneapolis on Wednesday. , where this drama reopened the wounds of George Floyd's murder.

Kim Potter, 49, is on trial for manslaughter.

On April 11, 2021, this veteran agent had killed Daunte Wright, a young man of 20, in Brooklyn Center, in the suburb of this large city in the north of the United States.

This is #DaunteWright and his son Duante Wright Jr.

Earlier today Duante Sr. was shot to death during a traffic stop reportedly about an air freshener obstructing a mirror.

He was 20 years old and killed by a Brooklyn Center Police Officer in MN.

He was unarmed.

pic.twitter.com/p3VOOiaLK8

- Lee Merritt (@MerrittForTexas) April 12, 2021

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 forty-something had been the source of huge anti-racist demonstrations around the world.

A trial in the shadow of that of Derek Chauvin

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, which takes place in the same court, with the same prosecutors and certain joint lawyers, is held in the shadow of this historic precedent.

Video.

Minneapolis: renewed tension after the death of a young African-American killed by the police

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.

This is not "an unfortunate mistake"

The young man, who was unarmed, then tried to flee.

To dissuade him, Kim Potter had drawn what she thought was his electric pistol.

On a recording of the scene, he is heard shouting "Taser" several times, before shooting and killing Daunte Wright.

"She is not being prosecuted for intentional homicide," said prosecutor Erin Eldridge from the outset, but it is not "an unfortunate mistake" either.

"This file concerns the reckless handling of a weapon, the neglect of the risk" by a policewoman with 26 years of experience, she asserted.

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 overnight.