Daunte Wright

On April 11, 2021, Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old biracial Black man, was fatally shot by police officer Kimberly Potter during a traffic stop and attempted arrest for an outstanding arrest warrant in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. After a brief struggle with officers, Wright was shot at close range. He then drove off a short distance, but his vehicle collided with another and hit a concrete barrier. Officers pulled Wright out of his car and administered CPR, but were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

A police officer fatally shot Mr. Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minn., about 10 miles from where Derek Chauvin was on trial in the killing of George Floyd. Hundreds of demonstrators poured into the streets of Brooklyn Center, Minn., on multiple nights after the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop on April 11.

The shooting injected more frustration and anxiety into the Twin Cities region, where Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer, was being tried in the death of George Floyd. Mr. Chauvin was later found guilty of murdering Mr. Floyd. According to Chief Tim Gannon of the Brooklyn Center Police Department, officers pulled Mr. Wright over on the afternoon of April 11 for a traffic violation related to expired registration tags. Officers then discovered that he had a warrant for his arrest.

As the police tried to detain Mr. Wright, he stepped back into his car, prompting a brief struggle with officers, Chief Gannon said. In graphic body camera footage shown to reporters the next day, one officer can be seen pointing a handgun at him and shouting “Taser.” After the car pulls away, the officer yells an obscenity and says, “I just shot him” to two other officers, according to the video.

The car traveled several blocks and struck another vehicle. The police and medical workers pronounced Mr. Wright dead at the scene. The Hennepin County medical examiner concluded the day after the shooting that Mr. Wright died of a gunshot wound to the chest.

Katie Wright, Mr. Wright’s mother, told reporters that her son had called her as he was being pulled over. “He said they pulled him over because he had air fresheners hanging from his rearview mirror,” she said. Ms. Wright said her son had dropped or put down the phone, after which she heard “scuffling” and an officer telling Mr. Wright not to run.

Then, she said, someone hung up. When she called back, a woman who had been in the car with him answered and told her that he had been shot. On the day of Mr. Wright’s death and at a vigil near the scene of the shooting, his mother urged protesters to be peaceful.

“We want justice for Daunte,” she said. “We don’t want it to be about all this violence.”

Family and friends remembered Mr. Wright for his bright smile and outgoing demeanor, and as a dedicated father to a toddler, Daunte Jr., who was almost 2. As a freshman at Thomas Edison High School, he was voted a “class clown.” He attended Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis in 2018, said the school principal, Yusuf Abdullah, who said he “was just like any other kid.” “We got to know Daunte really well through his sister. Many staff worked with him through the years, trying to build a relationship with him, connect with him,“ Abdullah said. “He was a good kid – excitable,” he said.

After he was killed on Sunday, his family learned of a connection between Wright and George Floyd, the Black man whose death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer nearly a year ago sparked nationwide protests. Floyd’s girlfriend, Courteney Ross, said she worked with Wright while he was a student at Edison high school. “[I’m] crushed. It’s enough that Floyd is gone, but for one of my youths to be gone as well,” Ross said on Tuesday during a protest against police brutality in Minneapolis. “He was just a wonderful, beautiful boy,” Ross said.

At a news conference outside a Minneapolis courthouse days after the shooting, his mother was joined by Courteney Ross, the girlfriend of George Floyd and a former teacher of Mr. Wright. Daunte Wright Spent Final Moments Talking With His Mother. “I just seen and heard the fear in his voice,” she said. Mr. Wright was a young father who loved basketball and, in the tightknit world of Minneapolis, had a connection to George Floyd.

Daunte Wright became a father while he was still a teenager, and seemed to relish the role of a doting young dad, his family and friends said. “He had a two-year-old son that’s not going to be able to play basketball with him. He had sisters and brothers that he loved so much,” said Katie Wright, his mother, on Good Morning America. Wright attended three different high schools, including Edison high school in Minneapolis, where he was voted “class clown” as a freshman.

Jonathan Mason, who worked as a youth development specialist and mentor at the school, said Wright was a gregarious, popular student who had many friends. Daunte Wright became a father while he was still a teenager, and seemed to relish the role of a doting young dad, his family and friends said.

“He had a two-year-old son that’s not going to be able to play basketball with him. He had sisters and brothers that he loved so much,” said Katie Wright, his mother, on Good Morning America. His aunt, Naisha Wright, said he was “a lovable young man”. “His smile, oh Lord, the most beautiful smile,” she said.

An older cousin, Mario Greer, said he and Wright loved seeing each other on holidays, especially on the Fourth of July, when they liked to shoot off Roman candles together. Wright attended three different high schools, including Edison high school in Minneapolis, where he was voted “class clown” as a freshman.

Jonathan Mason, who worked as a youth development specialist and mentor at the school, said Wright was a gregarious, popular student who had many friends. “He was a charismatic kid. He would joke with you, and he was so witty,” Mason said. “He was one of those kids that everybody looked up to.” Wright played on the freshman and junior varsity basketball teams, and was known for having a good left-hand shot, Mason said.

During mentoring sessions, Wright would talk about what he hoped to do with his life, Mason said. The two also talked about how Black men should behave during encounters with police, because of the history of Black Americans being shot by police during traffic stops and other encounters. “I talked about if they pull you over, make sure your hands are on the top of the steering wheel, don’t reach for anything,” Mason said.

“He would always say, ‘Man, why we gotta do all that just for people not to kill us?’”

“He said, ‘I want to be an NBA player, I want to be a fashion designer, I want to be a business owner’, ” Mason recalled. “I said, ‘If you grow up, you can be whatever you want to be.’”

Police said the officer who shot Wright meant to use her Taser on him, but instead shot him with her service weapon. A prosecutor said on Wednesday he charged the officer with second-degree manslaughter. Police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright was training others. Kimberly A. Potter was a 26-year veteran of the force in a Minneapolis suburb and president of a police union. Ms. Potter, 48, then resigned from the police, her union said in a statement the following day, when Chief Gannon also announced his resignation.

The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the state agency that investigates police killings in Minnesota, said that Ms. Potter had been arrested and taken into custody on the morning of April 14. She faces a charge of second-degree manslaughter, said Pete Orput, the top prosecutor in Washington County. Bodycam footage shows that after Wright stepped out of the car and then got back in, an officer said she was going to use a Taser on him. But instead of shooting a Taser, Officer Kim Potter fired a handgun, screaming "Holy sh*t! I shot him!" as Wright was mortally wounded.

Both the officer and the police chief have resigned. A toddler is now fatherless. And the Minneapolis area, already grappling with the death of George Floyd, now mourns another death of a man during a police encounter. Wright leaves behind a young son, Daunte Wright Jr., who was supposed to see his dad to celebrate his upcoming 2nd birthday. "Now my son, he don't have a dad," said the boy's mother, Chyna Whitaker.

"His dad won't get to see him for his 2nd birthday or for any of his birthdays. And I'm just so messed up about it because I feel like they stole my son's dad from him."

Naisha Wright made the cross-country road trip from her home in Alabama to Minnesota after learning about her nephew's death. "My nephew was 20 years old. I don't care what nobody got to say about him. He was loved," Naisha Wright said, acknowledging the strong family built by the young man's parents. "This is no broken home. This is 23 years of love." But now, the family has been shattered after Wright's death. "How do we put life back together after this?" Naisha Wright asked. "My mother shouldn't have to be burying her grandchild. My brother and my sister shouldn't be burying their son."

"I cannot accept that. I lost my son. He's never coming back," Wright's father Aubrey Wright told ABC's "Good Morning America" Tuesday. "I can't accept that...mistake. That doesn't even sound right. You know, this officer has been on the force for 26-plus years. I can't accept that."

The case is being investigated by an independent agency, and it's not clear if Potter will be charged. Katie Wright said she "would like to see justice served and her held accountable for everything she's taken from us." Wright's death stirred painful memories for many Minnesotans, including the family of George Floyd. The former Minneapolis officer who knelt on Floyd's neck for more than 9 minutes, Derek Chauvin. On Tuesday, Floyd's family left the trial to meet with the Wright family outside the Minneapolis courthouse. "They thought it was important that they give comfort to Daunte Wright's mother" and family, said Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the Wright family.

Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd, told the Wright family "we will stand in support with you." "The world is traumatized, watching another African American man being slayed," Philonise Floyd said. "I woke up in the morning with this on my mind. I don't want to see another victim," he said. "It's a time for change, and that time is now."