According to the family’s attorneys, the city of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, and the family of Daunte Wright, a black man murdered by a white police officer during a traffic check last year, have reached a $3.25 million settlement.
The amount is a portion of a settlement agreement reached with the family after police officer Kim Potter, 26, fatally shot Wright while attempting to arrest him. Potter allegedly confused her gun for her taser.
Along with a permanent tribute to Wright, the city also agreed to modifications to its enforcement practices, including those relating to officer intervention, implicit bias, weapon confusion, mental health crises, and other issues.
According to the statement from the family’s attorney Antonio Romanucci, “the comprehensive settlement in this tragic case will provide a meaningful measure of accountability to the family for their deep loss of a son, sibling, and father, and they hope and believe the measures of change to policing, policies, and training will create significant improvements to the community in Daunte’s name.”
Nothing can bring him back, but his family wants to leave a lasting legacy that spares other families the kind of anguish they will have to deal with for the rest of their lives.
On April 11, 2021, Wright was stopped by the police for having an expired tag and an unauthorized air freshener.
In 2018, after choking a lady and threatening to shoot her if she did not turn up $820 hidden in her bra, Wright was found to have an outstanding warrant, Brooklyn Center police discovered.
Wright was scheduled to go on trial for attempted aggravated robbery, which carries a maximum 20-year jail sentence.
Wright attempted to escape as Potter and a rookie police tried to apprehend him.
Wright was shot and murdered by Potter, a mother of two, who claimed Wright had mistaken her gun for a Taser.
After being found guilty on all counts at Hennepin County Court in February, she was carried away in handcuffs after being sentenced to two years in prison for the death of Daunte Wright, of which she will serve 14 months.
First- and second-degree manslaughter charges were found against her. The maximum penalty Minnesota permits for first-degree manslaughter is fifteen years, therefore her punishment was less than that by about seven years.
Potter, who cried a lot throughout the sentencing, has now been moved to Minnesota Correctional Facility – Shakopee, a five-level security prison situated about 25 miles south of Minneapolis’ central business district.
The ex-cop who was found guilty will stay there at least until her sentencing. She will probably serve some of her time at Shakopee, but not all of it.