Potter’s trial began Tuesday, with jury selection taking just over three days.<\/b>
\nA mostly-white jury will determine the fate of Kim Potter, the former Minnesota police officer who fatally shot unarmed Black man Daunte Wright in April. Jury selection, which began Tuesday, concluded Friday with nine white jurors, one Black juror and two Asian jurors. Both alternates are also white. Most of the jury had already been picked Thursday, with its members expressing a variety of opinions on policing in a pre-selection questionnaire. Legal experts said trial observers should focus less on the racial makeup of the jury and more on their feelings about police. \u201cIt might be true in general that Black people are more distrustful of police than white people, but it isn\u2019t true as to every individual,\u201d said Ted Sampsell-Jones, a professor at St. Paul\u2019s Mitchell Hamline School of Law. \u201cLots of young white people in Hennepin County are far more progressive and anti-cop than some older Black people, for example.\u201d Potter,49, fatally shot Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop April 11 in Brooklyn Center, a suburb just north of Minneapolis. Wright was stopped for a traffic violation when Potter learned the young man was wanted for a misdemeanor weapons charge. As Wright moved to drive away, Potter pulled her gun and killed him. Potter has said she meant to grab her Taser but instead pulled the firearm. She can be heard yelling \u201cTaser! Taser! Taser!\u201d in body-camera video of the shooting. Potter is charged with first-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter. If convicted on both charges, she would likely face about 10 years in prison. Prosecutors have said they\u2019ll ask for a longer sentence. Potter\u2019s attorneys have said she will take the stand in her own defense. The trial will begin Wednesday with opening statements. Hennepin County is 74% white, according to census data, almost exactly matching the 75% white jury. It\u2019s the second high-profile case in the county this year. In April, Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd, a killing that occurred just 10 miles south of where Potter fatally shot Wright.\u2019 Chauvin was convicted by a jury comprised to half white people and half people of color, but that racial makeup was \u201cmostly just luck of the draw,\u201d Sampsell-Jones said. With News Wire Services<\/p>\n