The defense team for former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter rested their case Friday, just after Potter took the stand at her own trial to deliver emotional testimony. The video above shows clips from her testimony.
The manslaughter trial surrounds the death of Daunte Wright back in April. Potter said Wright was trying to leave the scene as Potter and other officers were trying to arrest Wright on an outstanding warrant for a weapons violation. She said she shot Wright with a handgun in a moment of chaos when she meant to fire her taser.
“I didn’t want to hurt anybody,” the former officer said while sobbing during her testimony Friday. “I’m sorry it happened.”
At the trial, the former officer’s attorneys argued that she made a mistake but also would have been justified in using deadly force if she had meant to. Body camera video appeared to show Wright had pulled away from officers and got back in his car when they were trying to arrest him.
“And they’re still struggling, and I can see Sergeant Johnson and the driver struggling over the gearshift because I can see Johnson’s hand and then I can see his face,” Potter said while getting emotional at the trial. “He had a look of fear on his face. It’s nothing I’d seen before.”
Potter went on to say she wouldn’t have pulled over Wright’s car if she hadn’t been training another officer, and she hadn’t planned to use deadly force that day. Prosecutors have described the officer’s actions as unreasonable, saying she was an experienced officer who had extensive training in Taser use. On Friday, trial prosecutor Erin Eldridge got Potter to agree that her use-of-force training was a “key component” to being an officer.
“Ms. Potter, from your reaction today and some reaction on your video, you didn’t plan to use deadly force that day, did you,” Eldridge asked, to which Potter responded “no”. The former officer also said at trial that she never used a Taser while on duty during her 26 years as an officer, though she had pulled it out a few times. She also said she never used her gun until the day she shot Wright.
Jury instructions and closing arguments are set to begin Monday.
