Anonymous, partially sequestered jury ordered for trial of ex-cop who fatally shot Daunte Wright
Jurors will remain anonymous for the highly anticipated trial of former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter, who claims she mistook her gun for a taser when she fatally shot Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in April, the judge overseeing the case ruled this week.
Hennepin County Judge Regina Chu determined Tuesday that the jury be referred to in court only by their numbers and have limited contact with court staff. The panel will also be sequestered once deliberations begin, according to Chu’s written order — which is similar to one imposed at the trial of another ex-cop, convicted George Floyd killer Derek Chauvin.
The shooting of 20-year-old Wright happened roughly halfway through Chauvin’s trial and just about 10 miles from the Minneapolis courthouse where the livestreamed proceedings took place. Wright’s killing in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center sparked a series of protests, some of which turned violent and led to a citywide curfew.
Potter, who is white, pulled over Wright on the afternoon of April 11 and began to arrest him for an outstanding warrant for a misdemeanor weapons charge when the Black driver tried to get back into his car, according to a criminal complaint and police body-cam video. As Wright tried to drive away, Potter pulled out her handgun and fired once, fatally striking him in what she later described as an accidental shooting.
“S--t, I just shot him,” she could be heard saying in the body-cam footage.
Wright was pronounced dead at the scene and his death was ruled a homicide.
Potter, who was a 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Center Police Department and former union president, quit her job two days later and was arrested a day after that on a second-degree manslaughter charge.
Unlike Chauvin’s trial, Potter’s will not be broadcast. Judge Chu said she understands the media interest in the case but believes that seating in the trial courtroom or “overflow” rooms should be enough.
She also said that Potter’s trial, scheduled to begin Nov. 30, does not present the same “extraordinary circumstances” that led the court to allow cameras during Chauvin’s trial, noting that social distancing and masking rules have since been relaxed.
The jurors’ names and contact information will be released sometime after the trial is over, Chu said in her latest ruling Tuesday. She also warned that the court may order full sequestration at any point during the trial if the current plan “proves ineffective in keeping jurors free from outside influence.”
The proceedings are likely to drawn widespread attention as it involves another white Minnesota cop on trial for killing a Black person.
Critics and Wright’s supporters had demanded murder charges in the case, accusing Potter of racially profiling the driver and recklessly using deadly force against him.
“Driving while Black continues to result in a death sentence,” said Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing the families of Wright, Floyd and other people killed by law enforcement.
“Kim Potter executed Daunte for what amounts to no more than a minor traffic infraction and a misdemeanor warrant,” he said in a statement at the time. “Daunte’s life, like George Floyd’s life, like Eric Garner’s, like Breonna Taylor’s, like David Smith’s meant something. But Kim Potter saw him as expendable.”
