At issue is whether Ms. Potter, a former police officer, was criminally reckless when she fired a gunshot into Mr. Wright’s chest while seeming to think she was holding her Taser.
Twelve jurors began weighing manslaughter charges on Monday against Kimberly Potter, who fatally shot a man during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb while seeming to think she was using her Taser. They began deliberating after hearing closing arguments from prosecutors and from lawyers for Ms. Potter, a white officer who resigned from the Brooklyn Center Police Department after killing Mr. Wright, a Black man who had been driving to a carwash. The jurors discussed the case for about five hours without reaching a verdict. They will be sequestered until they decide the case, likely staying in a hotel and returning to the courthouse in Minneapolis on Tuesday to continue deliberations. In closing arguments, Earl Gray, Ms. Potter’s lead lawyer, said his client should not be sent to prison for a shooting that prosecutors concede was a mistake. He argued that Mr. Wright had “caused his own death” by trying to flee from the police. “This lady here made a mistake, and my gosh, a mistake is not a crime,” Mr. Gray said, motioning toward Ms. Potter. Erin Eldridge, a prosecutor, told jurors that they should find Ms. Potter guilty of the two charges she faces — first-degree and second-degree manslaughter — because she acted recklessly and violated her training by mixing up her Taser and her gun, costing Mr. Wright,20, his life. “Accidents can still be crimes,” Ms. Eldridge said. She added, “This was a colossal screw-up, a blunder of epic proportions.” If the jury convicts Ms. Potter on either manslaughter count, a judge would probably sentence her to several years in prison, and possibly a decade or longer.
