Ex-Brooklyn Center police officer to be charged with second-degree manslaughter in Daunte Wright's shooting death, prosecutor says - USA TODAY

Former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter resigned after the death of Daunte Wright.

Protesters took to the streets in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, where the family of Daunte Wright says he was shot by police after a traffic stop.

– The former Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop will be charged with second-degree manslaughter, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Washington County Attorney Pete Orput confirmed in an email to USA TODAY that Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Center Police Department, would be charged, though the criminal complaint was still being processed Wednesday.

Agents with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension arrested Potter on Wednesday morning, Jill Oliveira, a spokeswoman for the bureau, said in a statement.

The city's former police chief, who also resigned Tuesday, said Potter accidentally grabbed her firearm when she thought she was tasing Wright during the traffic stop Sunday.

"While we appreciate that the district attorney is pursuing justice for Daunte, no conviction can give the Wright family their loved one back," Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing Wright's family, said in a statement with co-counsel Jeff Storms and Antonio Romanucci.

'He did not deserve this': Family remembers Daunte Wright as an adoring dad who enjoyed playing sports and celebrating the Fourth of July.

Protestors hold signs on Tuesday, April 13, 2021, in front of the Brooklyn Center Police Department. (Photo: Dave Schwarz, St. Cloud Times).

"I never imagined this was what was going to happen," Wright's mother, Katie Wright, said Tuesday as she recounted the final moments of her son's life during a traffic stop.

Wright's family and many in the Brooklyn Center community have called into question how Potter could not have realized she was holding her firearm.

"This is going to be an unpopular statement … Daunte Wright, if he would have just complied, he was told was under arrest, they were arresting him on a warrant for weapons, he set off a chain of events that unfortunately led to his death," Peters said

The area was under curfew for another night Tuesday, yet protesters and police clashed outside Brooklyn Center police headquarters. 

Matt Langer said about 60 people were arrested in connection to the Brooklyn Center protests ranging from "riot and criminal behaviors" and urged the public for help