A first-degree manslaughter charge has now been filed against former Brooklyn Center Police Officer Kim Potter, who had already been charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Daunte Wright.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison added the charge against Potter this week.
The maximum sentence for first-degree manslaughter is 15 years and a $30,000 fine and for second-degree manslaughter, it's 10 years and a $20,000 fine.
Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, died of a gunshot wound to the chest in April 2021, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office, which classified the manner of death as a homicide.
He was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, after officer Potter said she mistook her taser for a gun and fired at him. He died about 10 miles from where George Floyd, another black man was killed by a Minneapolis police officer last year.
Body camera video showed Potter yelled, "Taser!" but fired her service weapon, killing the 20-year-old Wright as he tried to get back into his car.
According to a police report filed at the time, Potter said thought she'd grabbed her Taser instead of a gun.
Potter was charged with manslaughter three days after the shooting. In the weeks following the shooting, activists demanded Potter be charged with third-degree murder.
Potter, 48, had been with Brooklyn Center Police for 26 years before she submitted her resignation following the shooting.
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Potter's trial is scheduled to start Nov. 30.
Ben Crump, Tony Romanucci and Jeff Storms, attorneys for Wright's family, issued the following statement:
"The amended Complaint further details how no reasonable officer could confuse their sidearm for a TASER. Kimberly Potter's killing of Daunte Wright was not a mere accident. We and Daunte's family all commend Attorney General Ellison and his team for working to obtain the strongest and most just conviction possible."
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