Police Officer Who Shot and Killed Daunte Wright Was Training Others

Kimberly A. Potter was a 26-year veteran of the force in a Minneapolis suburb and president of a police union.

BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. — Officer Kimberly A. Potter was in the midst of a routine training day on Sunday, demonstrating her decades of policing know-how to less experienced officers in the Brooklyn Center Police Department. But that training came to an abrupt and horrifying end when Officer Potter, who is white, shot Daunte Wright, a Black 20-year-old man, in his car as he tried to avoid arrest. Body camera video shows that the officer shouted “Taser!” while pointing a handgun at Mr. Wright, who was unarmed; she then fired a single round into his chest, killing him, in what the authorities in Minnesota have described as a deadly mistake. With protests unfolding each night in Brooklyn Center, Officer Potter, a veteran officer of 26 years, and Tim Gannon, the department’s police chief, both resigned their posts on Tuesday. The abrupt departures came a day after the city manager who oversaw the department was fired, and as the city of 30,000 residents remained boarded up; National Guard troops stood with guns outside of the city’s police station, which has been the center of nightly clashes.