Andy Roesgen
13 April 2021•Update: 14 April 2021
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minnesota
The veteran police officer who shot and killed a young Black man in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota resigned on Tuesday.
Brooklyn Center officer Kim Potter's resignation letter was brief, mentioning that she "loved every minute" of serving her community. She had been on the force for 27 years.
Her resignation was announced by a nervous-sounding Mayor Mike Elliott who said Police chief Tim Gannon had also resigned. The mayor faced intense pressure to fire the chief and Potter after the shooting of Daunte Wright, 20, on Sunday.
Elliott said he hoped the resignations "send a message to the community that we're taking this very seriously and that we're turning over a new leaf."
Wright was shot by Potter during what appeared to be a routine traffic stop. On Potter's body camera video, Wright apparently resisted arrest.
Police said Potter accidentally grabbed her gun and fired, instead of grabbing her taser, which was on the other side of her holster.
The appearance of an "accidental" shooting does "not at all" lessen the anger of demonstrators, a young man who called himself Shadow, told Anadolu Agency as he stood outside the heavily-fortified Brooklyn Center police station.
"You cannot just pull someone over," his voice then pointed at a line of police in riot gear a few feet away. "You guys go to school for four years to learn what a reasonable cause is!"
Protesters and Wright's family say the initial police response to pulling over Wright's car for having expired license plates was over the top and unnecessary. They pointed out that with coronavirus restrictions, residents were having trouble getting new license plates. Wright had a warrant for his arrest but on a relatively minor charge.
Late Monday, as the second night of protests, erupted outside the police station, Elliott, who is black, wore a helmet as he talked with protesters and urged calm.
By dawn, about 40 people had been arrested and a handful of businesses were looted.
Still, that was an improvement from the night before, in the hours after Wright was killed, when dozens of businesses were looted.
Protesters hurled bricks at officers and police responded with pepper ball shots.
A much larger police presence Monday night, along with the use of flashbangs and pepper balls, helped quell occasional clashes between police and hundreds of protesters.
The quick-release of Potter's body camera video was a bit stunning. Release of that kind of police video, particularly in cases of death, can sometimes take years of legal fights. But now-former police chief Gannon said he wanted to be as transparent as possible. Still, that is not good enough for demonstrators.
They want to see Potter charged with a crime and given that the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin continues a few miles away in the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, feelings are especially raw in the area.
At the news conference to announce the resignations, a female activist shouted at Elliott: "Put your boots on the ground and act as you care about Black people! No more! I'm sick of you all!"
Barbershop owner Phillip Musa, who is Black and whose shop was spared looting across the street from the police station, spent Tuesday yanking wooden planks of protection he put up over his windows.
"Right now America is a volcano," he told Anadolu Agency, "Everybody's erupting. We need solutions to comfort our insides, know how to come to the table and (resolve) things."
