Body camera video shows moment a female police officer shot and killed Daunte Wright, 20-year-old black man in Minnesota

A police body camera captured the moment a female police officer shot and killed a 20-year-old black man during a weekend traffic stop near Minneapolis. 

Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by officer Kim Potter on Sunday afternoon, April 11 during a traffic stop in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center.

During a Monday afternoon press conference, Brooklyn Center’s police chief Tim Gannon gave law enforcement’s side of the story before releasing the video of the fatal shooting.

Gannon said three officers stopped Wright and a passenger in a car with expired license-plate tags on Sunday night.

After running Wright’s identification, officers found an outstanding warrant for an unspecified gross misdemeanor. One officer removed Wright from the car to take him into custody. 

Body-camera footage showed what happened next: Wright stepped out of the driver’s side of the vehicle, with his arms and hands held behind his back. As an officer attempts to handcuffs Wright, he broke free and jumped into the driver’s seat. 

Another officer, wearing the body camera whose footage was released, pointed a weapon at Wright during a struggle with another officer, and yelled, “Taser! Taser! Taser!” The officer then fired a single shot, which was not from a Taser but from a firearm. “Holy shit, I just shot him!” the officer yelled as Wright drove away in the car.