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April 13, 2021 3:49 p.m.
The officer who fatally shot a Black motorist Sunday, and the police chief who said the shooting was accidental, have both resigned from their jobs in a suburb north of Minneapolis.
Kim Potter, the police officer who shot 20-year-old Daunte Wright after threatening to tase him during a traffic stop, said in a brief resignation statement to Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis officials that “I believe it is in the best interest of the community, the department, and my fellow officers if I resign immediately.”
Potter had been with the Brooklyn Center Police Department for 26 years, according to a statement from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) identifying her. The BCA is leading the investigation into Wright’s death.
Jo Ciavaglia
USA TODAY Network
When Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, police officer Kim Potter allegedly mistook her service weapon for a stun gun and fatally shot an unarmed Black motorist Sunday, it was at least the 16th such “weapons confusion” incident in the United States since 2001.
And the victim, Daunte Wright, was at least the fourth person to have died as a result, according to data compiled by the website FatalEncounters.org and University of Colorado professor Paul Taylor, who tracks such cases.
These types of incidents are rare, experts say, although no government agency tracks the use of Taser-like devices nationwide so it’s impossible to say with certainty how many times it has occurred.