Two days after a northern Minneapolis suburb became the latest backdrop to an unarmed Black man’s fatal shooting by police, the city’s police chief and the officer involved in the shooting resigned.
Brooklyn Centre became a flash point on Sunday after Daunte Wright, 20, was shot during a traffic stop by a longtime officer, Kim Potter. Body-camera footage released Monday showed that Potter, 48, apparently meant to fire her Taser but accidentally pulled her service weapon instead.
Potter abruptly resigned on Tuesday, writing in a brief letter to city officials her immediate departure was “in the best interest of the community.
Moments later during a news conference at City Hall, Mayor Mike Elliott announced that Police Chief Tim Gannon had also resigned. Gannon will be replaced by Commander Tony Gruenig, a senior commander in the department, Elliott said.
The shooting has heightened tensions in an area already on edge. Ten miles down Interstate 94 in Minneapolis, the murder trial of former officer Derek Chauvin – arguably the biggest police trial in state history – is underway. Former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama underscored that reality in a statement on Wright’s death Tuesday
Our hearts are heavy over yet another shooting of a Black man, Daunte Wright, at the hands of police,” the couple wrote in a statement released through the Obama Foundation. The fact it could happen during the Chauvin trial as Minneapolis relives George Floyd’s death “indicates not just how important it is to conduct a full and transparent investigation, but also just how badly we need to re-imagine policing and public safety in this country.
Brooklyn Center officials and state officials, including Gov. Tim Walz, D, addressed the grief and anger in the community in news conferences Monday. Walz issued a 7 pm curfew that spanned four counties as leaders tried to acknowledge the emotion in the community while discouraging unrest. The results were mixed late Monday.
At one of the vigils scheduled to end before the curfew, hundreds joined Wright’s family near the intersection where he was shot as a trumpeter played “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” A minister introduced Wright’s mother, Katie Wright, who told attendees, “My heart is literally broken into a thousand pieces, and I don’t know what to do or what to say.”
Earlier on Monday, Elliott publicly split with since-terminated City Manager Curt Boganey and Gannon over whether Potter should be fired.
“All employees working for the city of Brooklyn Center are entitled to due process with respect to discipline,” Boganey said. “This employee will receive due process, and that’s really all I can say today. Elliott had said the officer should be dismissed.
“Let me be very clear: My position is that we cannot afford to make mistakes that lead to the loss of life of other people in our profession,” he said at a news conference. “So I do fully support relieving the officer of her duties.
In other news – Generations actress Letoya Makhene posts n@ked photos begging her wife Lebo to come back
Generations: The Legacy actress Letoya Makhene takes drama with wife, Lebo Keswa to social media.
The actress shares raunchy snaps of herself, revealing her lingerie, and said her wife, Lebo needs to resume social media for her to stop posting such content. Learn more
Source: IOL
