Protesters are pushed back by law enforcement at a 2021 demonstration in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. A crowd gathered after a local police officer shot and killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop. Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
This story is published as part of a collaboration between ProPublica and Minnesota Reformer.
In the spring of 2021, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz faced multiple crises.
The trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd was coming to a close. As the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s death approached, authorities were preparing for the kind of unrest that had damaged or destroyed long stretches of the city in 2020. Meanwhile, a package of police reform bills was stalled in the divided Minnesota state Legislature.
Then, on April 11, 2021, a police officer shot and killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in the northern Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center, touching off a fresh round of protests, clashes with the police, and criticism of Walz after he sent in hundreds of officers and armored vehicles that had been readied in anticipation of the trial’s aftermath.