Ex-US policeman crying on stand explains how he shot black driver

WASHINGTON: A former US police officer on trial for the death of a young African-American man wept in court on Friday as a routine traffic stop swiftly turned into chaos.
Kim Potter, 49, has been charged with first-degree murder for the deadly shooting of 20-year-old Dante Wright at Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, in April this year.
She claims the shooting was an accident, adding that she had accidentally grabbed her gun instead of her Taser.
“We were struggling, we were trying to stop them from driving. And then it just got chaotic, all I remember was shouting ‘Tasar Tasar Tasar’. Nothing else happens, then he told me I shot him,” said Potter, crying bitterly.
She said the moments after that were largely empty.
“They have an ambulance for me and I don’t know why. And then I went, then I was at the station. I don’t remember many things afterward,” she said.
On Sunday, April 11, 2021, a white policeman patrolling with a co-worker decided to see the driver of a white Buick who had committed a minor traffic violation.
After realizing that the driver was the subject of an arrest warrant, the police officers decided to arrest him. Potter described it as a potentially dangerous condition.
“Sometimes there are guns in the car. Sometimes there are uncooperative people, you don’t know who you are stopping,” she told the court.
Wright, who was unarmed, resisted being handcuffed and restarted his car to try to escape. The potter then made what he said he thought was his taser.
On the recording of the scene, Potter can be heard shouting “Taser” several times before shooting his gun and seriously injuring Wright.
The incident came during the trial of white policeman Derek Chauvin, who knelt on George Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes in Minneapolis in May 2020.
Floyd’s death sparked nationwide protests against racism and police brutality.
Wright’s death sparked several nights of protests and unrest at the Brooklyn Center before Potter’s arrest eased tensions.
Potter’s attorney, Paul Engh, argued that Wright’s death was the result of human error and the stress of his client, maintaining that she was attempting to protect a fellow officer as Wright tried to drive away. .
But for prosecutor Erin Aldridge, Wright’s death stemmed from Potter’s reckless handling of his weapon and the negligence of an officer with 26 years on the force.
Ben Crump, a lawyer for Wright’s family, said in a statement that Potter’s testimony showed that “the murder of Deontay Wright at the hands of Potter could have been completely prevented.”