*Ex-police officer Kim Potter, who was convicted of manslaughter in December for shooting and killing Daunte Wright in the Minneapolis area, has been sentenced to two years, 16 months of which will be served in prison.
The remaining eight months will be on supervised release.
Judge Regina Chu said that this was the case of a “cop who made a tragic mistake. She drew her firearm thinking it was a Taser and ended up killing a young man.”
The court approved a downward departure from the typical sentence, as Chu said Potter never intended to use her firearm and the scene was chaotic.
Potter shot Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist, during a traffic stop on April 11, 2021. She said she meant to use her Taser, not her gun, but shot him once in the chest. She was found guilty of first-degree and second-degree manslaughter on Dec. 23, after roughly four days of jury deliberation.
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Before Potter was sentenced on Friday, Wright’s family members gave victim impact statements. Katie Wright, Daunte Wright’s mother, gave the first impact statement, tearfully saying to Potter: “I’ll never be able to forgive you for what you stole from us.” She asked Judge Regina Chu to hold Potter to the “highest accountability.”
Wright’s father Arbuey Wright said “Daunte meant the world to me.”
“She was a police officer longer than my son was alive,” Arbuey Wright said, while asking for Chu to apply the maximum sentence to Potter.
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