The veteran cop who shot and killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop and the city’s police chief have resigned.
48-year-old Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran of the police force, submitted her resignation letter on Tuesday morning, Mayor Mike Elliot announced in a news conference.
“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,” she wrote in her letter, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.
Police Chief Tim Gannon also submitted a letter of resignation.
Cmdr. Tony Gruening, who has been with the police department for almost 20 years, will take over as acting chief.
“We want to send the message to the community that we’re taking this situation very seriously,” Mayor Elliot said.
Gruening said that he hoped to bring “some calm for the community” after unrests and demonstrations rocked the city already unsettled after George Floyd died 10 only ten miles away last May.
A decision on whether prosecutors will charge the veteran police officer is expected on Wednesday.
It is not clear what charges she will face over 20-year-old Wright’s death but according to KSTP, multiple sources said that they could be filed on Wednesday. It is also not clear if she will be entitled to keep her pension.
The Hennepin County medical examiner ruled Wright’s death a homicide.
Gannon said he believed Potter mistook her gun for a taser when she shot the victim.
Wright’s grieving family called for the cop to be held accountable.
“I hope that since she went ahead and she resigned that they hold her at the highest (accountability) because she was the law, said Wright’s heartbroken aunt, Naisha Wright.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crumb said that he was shocked when he learned that another black man had died at the hands of police not far from where George Floyd tragically died.
“If you told me and I didn’t see little Daunte’s face and his mother and grandmother crying, I wouldn’t believe it,” Crump said.
Daunte’s mother, Katie Wright, called the day he died “the worst day of my life.”
“I never imagined this was what was going to happen. I just thought that he was getting arrested,” she expressed.
Wright’s father told Good Morning America that he couldn’t accept police’s explanation.
“I lost my son. He is never coming back. I can’t accept that. A mistake? That doesn’t even sound right,” he expressed.
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Replaced!