Saturday marks five years since Daunte Wright was fatally shot by a police officer during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center.
The big picture: Wright’s killing, which occurred just 15 miles from where George Floyd was killed a year prior, rocked a metro that was already on edge due to the Derek Chauvin murder trial.
- It sparked days of protests and renewed debates over traffic stop policies and proposals to shift more public safety duties from police to mental health responders.
Flashback: Officer Kimberly Potter shot and killed Wright, who was Black, during a traffic stop prompted by expired tags and a hanging air freshener. Potter discovered Wright had an active arrest warrant and tried to take him into custody.
- Potter, who is white, said she inadvertently pulled out her gun instead of a Taser as Wright attempted to flee.
Potter was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to about two years in prison. She was released in 2023…