«I’m hoping this will bring some calm to the community.»
The police chief in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, and the officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright, a 20-year old Black man who struggled with police after a traffic stop, have both tendered their resignations, the city’s mayor said on Tuesday. Mayor Mike Elliott told reporters they resigned after the city council passed a resolution to dismiss both the chief, Tim Gannon, and the officer who shot Wright, Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran of the police force. The moves followed two nights of protests in the town of 30,000 people just miles from Minneapolis, a city already on edge with the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murdering George Floyd last May. As Elliott spoke, relatives of Wright and their lawyer had assembled down the road outside the Minneapolis courthouse where Chauvin is being tried to lament the loss of a man they say was kind and worked multiple jobs to support his young son. “I’m hoping this will bring some calm to the community,” Elliott said, adding he had yet to accept Potter’s resignation, leaving a path to firing her. “We want to send a message to the community that we are taking this situation seriously.” Firing Potter could affect her pension and ability to work in law enforcement elsewhere. Wright was shot on Sunday after being pulled over for what police said was an expired car registration.
