Kim Potter, cop who killed Daunte Wright, now facing 1st-degree manslaughter charge

Kim Potter, the Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright, was charged Thursday with first-degree manslaughter.

Previously, Potter had only been charged with second-degree manslaughter for killing Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, in April in Brooklyn Center, Minn. She still faces the second-degree charge as well.

Kim Potter is pictured after she was booked at Hennepin County jail in Minnesota in April.

The maximum sentence for first-degree manslaughter is 15 years in prison and a $30,000 fine. The maximum punishment for second-degree manslaughter is 10 years and a $20,000 fine.

Potter, 48, was a 26-year police veteran and said she meant to fire her Taser when she pulled her firearm and killed Wright. She resigned days later.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who is prosecuting the case, said the first-degree manslaughter charged was based on the factor of Potter recklessly handling a firearm, a misdemeanor, when she shot Wright.

Potter pulled over Wright on the afternoon of April 11 in Brooklyn Center, a north Minneapolis suburb. She began to arrest him for an outstanding warrant for a misdemeanor weapons charge, according to body-cam video. Wright hopped back into his car and began driving away, but Potter shot him and the car crashed. Wright died at the scene.

“S--t, I just shot him,” she could be heard saying in the body-cam footage.

Jury selection in Potter’s trial is scheduled to start Nov. 30.