The officer who shot and killed a young black man in a Minneapolis suburb has resigned with the police chief, as the city braces for more troubles in response to the incident.
Brooklyn Center mayor Mike Elliott told a press briefing Tuesday that Kim Potter, the officer who shot 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop on Sunday, was leaving the police, as was Tim Gannon, the police chief. . Brooklyn Center city council passed a resolution a day earlier calling for their resignation.
“I hope this helps bring some calm to the community,” Elliott told reporters. “While at the end of the day I think people want justice, they want full accountability under the law, and that’s what we’re going to keep working for. We have to make sure that justice is done, that justice is done. ”
Gannon had previously stated that Potter intended to use a Taser on Wright and mistakenly fired his gun instead. He described the incident as an “accidental discharge” of a firearm.
The death sparked three nights of protests a few kilometers from where former policeman Derek Chauvin is on trial for murder. George floyd. Wright’s shooting has further fueled concerns about racial injustice in the police.
Videos and photos shared by journalists and activists on social media during the first two nights of protests showed police using tear gas and flash-bang grenades to interrupt a protest at the city’s police department after the demonstrators remained in the streets after the curfew.
Local officials said 40 people were arrested in connection with Monday night’s protests, which caused minor injuries to a few police officers.
Several hundred people gathered on Tuesday night near the Brooklyn Center Police Department, which had been barricaded behind a chain-link fence. Some people have been seen kneeling in the street during the same time Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck. “I’m so tired of walking,” said a young woman, addressing the kneeling protesters. “I’m so tired of saying another one. . . Last name.”
Local journalists said on social media that the press had been asked to leave the area.
Residents of the Twin Cities region were already at their wit’s end in the midst of Chauvin murder trial for Floyd’s death, which sparked worldwide protests against race and the police. The city has stepped up security during the trial and officials are poised for further unrest when a verdict is delivered, which could happen in the coming weeks.
Judge Peter Cahill rejected a defense request to sequester the Chauvin jury after Wright’s shooting, saying the incident was “a whole different matter.” Chauvin’s team began presenting their case to jurors on Tuesday after the prosecution closed its case.
Former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle said in a statement that the Wright shooting underscored “how much we need to reinvent police and public safety in this country.”
