Thursday 22 / May / 2025
The officer who fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb and the city’s police chief have handed in their resignation, the Mayor of Brooklyn Center said on Tuesday.
Chief Tim Gannon and officer Kim Potter resigned following two nights of protests, the second despite a curfew being imposed.
Mayor Mike Elliott also told reporters the City Council had passed a resolution calling for the dismissal of both Gannon and Potter, a 26-year veteran of the police force.
Potter's resignation letter, a single paragraph, read: "I have loved every minute of being a police officer and serving this community to the best of my ability, but I believe it is in the best interest of the community, the department, and my fellow officers if I resign immediately."
What happened to lead to this?
Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was pulled over on Sunday for having expired license plates.
The police officers at the scene then tried to arrest him over an outstanding warrant after failing to appear in court on charges that he fled from officers and possessed a gun without a permit during an encounter with Minneapolis police in June last year.
Police bodycam footage showed an officer trying to cuff Wright next to the car.
Wright is then seen breaking free and getting inside the car when Potter yells "Taser, Taser, Taser," before firing a shot from what turned out to be her handgun.
"Holy s***, I just shot him," the officer can be heard saying as the car drives away.
Following the incident, Gannon said that Potter had accidentally used her handgun instead of her Taser after Wright refused to go into custody.
Shooting sparks outrage
Wright’s killing set in motion two nights of protests and unrest that saw angry demonstrators clash with the police in the area which is already in turmoil over the trial for the death of George Floyd.
Mayor Elliot said he hoped the resignations would heal the community and lead to reconciliation.
In the city of Portland, Oregon state's largest, police declared a riot and arrested at least one person late Tuesday after a fire erupted at the Portland Police Association (PPA) building, authorities said on Twitter.
Dozens of protesters had gathered in front of the PPA offices, chanting Wright's name and setting off fireworks, Portland-based journalist Suzette Smith said on Twitter.
A night before, police had pushed back protesters and knocked them to the ground after declaring their gathering as a riot, the Associated Press reported.
Portland has been rocked by protests since the killing of George Floyd last year.
Biden treads tightrope in DC
US President Joe Biden had a pair of symbolic appointments on this topic on Tuesday, demonstrating the tricky balancing act he faces. Within the space of a few hours, Biden went from a memorial service for a police officer killed in the line of duty when a man rammed his car into a barricade at the Capitol in Washington D.C., to a meeting in the Oval Office with members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Referring to the shooting of Wright as "God-awful," Biden said his government and every agency was focused on improving equity.
"We're in the business — all of us meeting today — to deliver some real change," Biden said ahead of the meeting. "We have an awful lot of things that we have to deal with ... when it comes to police, when it comes to massive inequality of economic opportunity."
