Daunte Wright’s family gets $3.25 million settlement in wrongful death suit

A Minneapolis suburb will pay a $3.25 million settlement to Daunte Wright’s family.

The family filed a wrongful-death suit against Brooklyn Center, Minn., after officer Kim Potter fatally shot Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, on April 11, 2021.

The settlement also includes new training requirements for Brooklyn Center police surrounding traffic stops, “officer intervention, implicit bias, weapons confusion, de-escalation and mental health crises.”

“Nothing can explain or fill the emptiness in our lives without Daunte or our continued grief at the senseless way he died,” Wright’s parents, Katie and Arbuey, said Tuesday in a statement to local ABC affiliate KSTP. “But in his name, we will move forward, and it was important to us that his loss be used for positive change in the community, not just for a financial settlement for our family.”

Daunte Wright was killed by officer Kim Potter on April 11, 2021.

Potter, 49, was convicted in December 2021 on two counts of manslaughter for killing Wright during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center. A 26-year law enforcement veteran, Potter said she mistook her firearm for her Taser when she shot at Wright.

Body-camera video showed Potter yelling “Taser! Taser! Taser!” before she killed Wright.

Potter was sentenced in February to two years in prison.

“Today the justice system murdered him all over again,” Katie Wright said in response to Potter’s light sentence.