Former Minneapolis-area police officer Kim Potter took the stand in her own defense on Friday as the defense's final witness before resting its case in the manslaughter trial against the veteran cop for shooting and killing 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop earlier this year.
Potter, 49, was on the stand for about three hours, beginning just before 11 a.m. local time. Wearing a cream-colored flower-patterned shirt and a light sweater, she grew upset, even audibly crying, at times when shown clips of the shooting and questioned about the moments surrounding the events.
Potter has been charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter for fatally shooting Wright during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, a Minneapolis suburb, on April 11, 2021. The 26-year police veteran and other officers, including a trainee, were attempting to arrest Wright when he tried to get back into his vehicle, video shows.
She has said she mistook her handgun for her Taser when she opened fire.
In this screen grab from video, Hennepin County Judge Regina Chu left, swears in former Brooklyn Center Police Officer Kim Potter before she testifies in court Friday, Dec. 17, 2021 at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. (Court TV, via AP, Pool)
The former cop said she had never fired her handgun before that day, and had also never needed to deploy her Taser before then. She described how she was working as a field training officer for Brooklyn Center police Officer Anthony Luckey when they spotted Daunte Wright's white Buick, which had expired tabs and an air freshener illegally hanging from the rearview mirror. She said she "most likely" would not have stopped Wright had she been alone.
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"During the COVID times, the high COVID times, the Department of Motor Vehicles was so offline that people weren't getting tabs. And we were advised not to try to enforce a lot of those things because the tabs were just not in circulation," she told defense attorney Earl Gray. But, she added: "Part of field training is that a probationer would make numerous contacts with the public throughout the day ... We ran the vehicle and confirmed that the registration was expired and that the registered owner had a petty misdemeanor type warrant for some type of drug offense."
She said they later searched Wright's record and found a suspended license, a gross misdemeanor bench warrant for weapons, and a protective order. Luckey had also told Potter at the time that there was an "obvious" smell of marijuana, Potter testified.
She began to break down as she described the moments of the shooting.
"Officer Lucky started to say something about, 'Don't do that. Don't tense up. Stop doing that.' And then it just went chaotic," Potter recalled. "I remember a struggle with Officer Luckey and the driver at the door."
She said she didn't remember much of what happened between when she fired her gun and when she was back at the police station later in the day.
In this screen grab from video, former Brooklyn Center Police Officer Kim Potter becomes emotional as she testifies in court, Friday, Dec. 17, 2021 at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. (Court TV, via AP, Pool)
"I went around Officer Luckey as they're trying to get back in the door. I'm between the door and Officer Luckey ... and the driver's getting into the car ... They're still struggling. And I can see Sgt. Johnson and the driver struggling over the gearshift because I can see Johnson's hand, and then I can see his face ... He had a look of fear on his face," she said. "We were trying to keep him from driving away. It just went chaotic. And then I remember yelling, 'Taser, Taser, Taser.'"
Potter said she resigned just a day or two after the shooting out of concern that there would be repercussions for the city. She has since moved out of state.
She grew even more upset under cross-examination from Assistant District Attorney Erin Eldridge, who took Potter nearly moment-by-moment through the police stop and the shooting, including what actions the veteran officer did and did not take after she fired her weapon.
"You'd agree that as a police officer, you have the duty to render aid and communicate information to other officers, right?" she asked an emotional Potter, who agreed. "And it's part of your job to assist those who are hurt or injured, true? ... And to communicate to other officers what you know about a particular scene, right? ... Give them whatever information you can to help them do their jobs, to help render assistance, things like that, right?"
Potter, through tears, said no.
"You were focused on what you had done because you had just killed somebody," Eldridge said.
"I'm sorry it happened," Potter said, as she audibly cried. "I'm so sorry .. I didn't want to hurt anybody."
Eldridge also showed side-by-side images of both types of weapons and pointed out the differences in size and color between the handgun and Taser.
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Potter said she had drawn her Taser while on duty "several times." When asked approximately how many times, Potter said: "For de-escalation, maybe a few times." She agreed she had never deployed her Taser.
During their questioning throughout the day, Eldridge and Potter both briefly mentioned that, following the shooting, Potter said something to the effect of, "I'm going to jail" or "I'm going to prison."
The prosecutor pointed to the police department's Taser policy, which states that training includes: "Performing reaction-hand draws or cross-draws to reduce the possibility of accidentally drawing or firing a firearm." Potter agreed she had signed the document every year.
In the minutes before the shooting, the officers had attempted to stop Wright and then tried to detain him after learning of a warrant for his arrest. Wright, 20, can be seen in a police video climbing back into the driver’s seat of a vehicle as the officers scuffle with him.
In Potter’s body camera footage from the shooting, she can be heard yelling, "I’ll tase you!" and "Taser! Taser! Taser!" before firing her handgun.
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She can then be heard saying, "I grabbed the wrong f------ gun," followed by: "Holy s---, I just shot him."
Potter resigned from the Brooklyn Center Police Department just days later. She faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the highest count.
On Friday, the defense rested its case soon as Potter completed her testimony. After excusing the panel of jurors, Judge Regina Chu and both sides discussed jury instructions for the remainder of the day. Both sides will deliver their closing arguments on Monday, when the jury is expected to begin deliberations.
Fox News' Jiovanni Lieggi contributed to this report.
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