Washington, (Asian independent) Former police officer Kim Potter, who fatally shot 20-year-old African-American man Daunte Wright in the US state of Minnesota, will be charged with second-degree manslaughter for the killing, a prosecutor said.
On Wednesday, Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said he is filing a second-degree manslaughter charge against Potter, a 48-year-old veteran female police officer who resigned on Tuesday and was subsequently arrested by agents with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), reports Xinhua news agency.
The BCA, which is investigating the fatal shooting, said Potter will be booked into the Hennepin County Jail.
The second-degree manslaughter charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, according to local media reports.
Protesters clashed with police for a third day on Tuesday in Brooklyn Center following Wright’s killing in a traffic stop in the city on Sunday.
The State Patrol said there were more than 60 arrests.
A day before stepping down on Tuesday, the city’s then police chief Tim Gannon said that Potter mistakenly used her gun instead of her taser in the fatal shooting, which he described as an “accidental discharge”.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner said Wright died by a single shot to the chest and ruled the death a homicide.
“No conclusions should be made until the investigation is complete,” the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association said in a statement on Tuesday, calling for protests to be peaceful.
Wright’s family is not “prepared to say that that was an accident”, their attorney Jeffrey Storms told CNN on Tuesday.
Brooklyn Center, a city of about 31,000, is just a few miles away from Minneapolis, where the murder trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin over the killing of African-American man George Floyd in May 2020 is underway.
“We will fight for justice for this family, just like we’re fighting for our brother,” Philonise Floyd said on Tuesday, extending his family’s condolences to the Wright family.
