Potter will be required to serve two-thirds (16 months) of her sentence in prison, according to Minnesota law. Potter was convicted of first and second-degree manslaughter in December after she fatally shot Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in April 2021.
"This has been an extremely difficult decision," Hennepin County, Minnesota Judge Regina Chu said before announcing the sentence. "The evidence is undisputed that officer Potter never intended to use her firearm," Judge Chu said.
"This is not a cop found guilty of murdering for using his knee to pin down a person for nine-and-a-half minutes as he gasped for air," Judge Chu added, referring to the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020. "I recognize there will be those who disagree with the sentence. That I granted a significant downward departure does not in any way diminish Daunte Wright's life. His life mattered."
The courtroom was extremely emotional on Friday. The Wright family had asked Judge Chu to sentence Potter to the maximum amount of time for her killing of Daunte Wright. In a sentencing memo filed on Tuesday, prosecutors requested Potter be sentenced to seven years and two months in prison.
Potter apologized to the Wright family in court on Friday, saying, "To the family of Daunte Wright, I am so sorry that I brought the death of your son, father, brother, uncle, grandson, nephew and the rest of your family to your home."
She said directly to the mother of Daunte Wright, "Katie, I understand a mother's love, and I am so sorry I broke your heart. My heart is broken for all of you. Earlier, when you said that I didn't look at you during the trial, I don't believe I had a right to. I didn't even have a right to be in the same room with you. I am so sorry that I hurt you so badly."
"I pray for Daunte and all of you many, many times a day. He is not more than one thought away from my heart and I have no right for that, for him to be in my heart," Potter continued.
"And I do pray that one day, you can find forgiveness, only because hatred is so destructive to all of us. And that I pray peace will always be with you and your family. Again, I am so sorry. And to the community of Brooklyn Center, I owe you all an apology to you. I loved working for you and I am sorry what's happened to our community since the death of Daunte. And the men and women who work for you still are good, honorable people and will work hard for you," Potter said.
During the sentencing hearing, Daunte Wright's mother gave an emotional speech saying, "Daunte loved hard, loved his family, friends, and his song. Daunte's smile was genuine and big just like his dreams. You took this. You took his future when he could've been so many things. April 11 was the worst day of my life... She failed Daunte, our family, and our community."
"They left him on the ground for hours as people all over the world watched. I had to cry from behind a caution tape. I couldn't go to be with him. My motherly instincts was to go to hold him, caress him, kiss him, and even in my mind in that moment, I wanted to save him, another opportunity that was stolen from me. She left our world with so much darkness and heartache." Katie Wright said, who compared the death of her son to that "sinking feeling a mother gets when she turns around and realizes her son is missing in a grocery store."
Katie Wright then went on to point out that Potter's first response was to start crying out of fear of being punished and going to prison. Wright then says Potter should have asked if her son was okay after she shot him, or focused on getting him the appropriate medical attention, as opposed to asking for her union rep, "Chuck", to be called.
The mother of Daunte Wright's son, Chyna Whitaker, says their two-year-old son hasn't been the same since his father was killed. "Kim Potter took my son's best friend away from him and things haven't been the same since. I am now a single mother, not by choice, by force," said Whitaker.
"I now suffer from severe PTSD: whenever I'm pulled over, I have extreme anxiety, afraid of making a mistake and something ending up going wrong," added Whitaker, who was crying. "I can't watch any movies or videos that have to do with police brutality because it reminds me of Daunte being killed."
Daunte Wright's family had asked for the maximum sentencing for Potter. They say they feel frustrated with the outcome of her shortened sentence, which is two years.
"So once again, we are standing here to say that we're very disappointed in the outcome. Yes, we got a conviction, and we thank everybody for that. But again, this isn't okay. This is the problem with our justice system today, and white women tears trumps, trumps, justice. And I thought my white woman tears would be good enough because they're true and genuine," Katie Wright, Daunte Wright's mother said.
Katie Wright is white, while Aubrey Wright, who is Daunte's father, is Black. Daunte's sister, Diamond Wright, had told the court how her family had discussed the death of George Floyd, saying, "Maybe we have enough white in us to not be a threat to the police, we were wrong. We have repeatedly seen that one hint of black in our skin makes us a target."
Daunte Wright's father, Aubrey Wright, said he felt cheated, hurt, and upset at the outcome of the trial.
"I walked out of this courthouse feeling like people are laughing at us because this lady [Potter] got a slap on the wrist, and we still every night sitting around crying, waiting on my son to come home. I'm upset," Aubrey Wright said.
Kim Potter's trial comes just weeks after the beginning of a federal trial that is investigating the three other officers involved in the killing of George Floyd, 46, who was murdered on May 25, 2020, by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the crime, which was seen as a major turning point for members of the Black Lives Matter group, the anti-racism movement that began in 2013.