Officer In Brooklyn Center Shooting Identified As Kim Potter

BROOKLYN CENTER, MN — The Brooklyn Center police officer who officials say fatally shot 20-year-old Daunte Wright Sunday is Kimberly A. Potter, who has been on the force for 26 years, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Potter has spent all 26 years of her career with the Brooklyn Center Police Department.

In body camera footage from the shooting that was released Monday morning, three officers are seen struggling with Wright as he tries to get back into his car.

In the video, which readers should be warned is extremely graphic, Potter yells "taser!" "taser!" before she is heard yelling "I shot him!" Potter meant to draw and shoot her taser but instead fired a round into Wright, according to Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon.

"This was an accidental discharge," he said during a news conference Monday. No gun was found on Wright or in his car, Gannon noted.

"I've asked the BCA to conduct an independent investigation into the shooting and death," the chief said.

Gannon asked the community to be "patient" while the case is investigated. The shooting comes to a region already anxious as the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis officer who had his knee on George Floyd's neck during an arrest last summer, is underway.

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