Former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter testified in her own manslaughter trial on Friday morning.  

RELATED: Kim Potter Trial: Use of Deadly Force Against Wright Was ‘Excessive’  

Happening now | Former Minnesota police officer #KimPotter who killed #DaunteWright takes the stand to testify in her own defense. Watch live: https://t.co/mpKQ1GrIAn pic.twitter.com/krdn3niAgQ

— Black News Channel (@BNCNews) December 17, 2021

Potter is facing manslaughter charges for the death of Daunte Wright, who she shot and killed during a traffic stop in April 2021. The former officer maintains that she meant to grab her Taser instead of her gun during the altercation with 20-year-old Wright, a young Black father.  

RELATED: Kim Potter Trial: Sergeant Never Heard of Cop Drawing Gun Instead of Taser 

The shooting happened during the trial for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, further intensifying tensions between residents and police in Minnesota and beyond.  

RELATED: Kim Potter Trial: Daunte Wright’s Mother Recalls Finding Out He Died  

The prosecution rested its case Thursday after calling numerous witnesses, including Wright’s girlfriend, who was in the car at the time of the shooting, and Wright’s parents, who provided spark of life testimonies, BNC previously reported.  

Potter testified that when she was in elementary school, an officer came to her school and the encounter inspired her to want to go into law enforcement.  

She worked with the department for 26 years and said she never wanted to move up in rank because she liked being a patrol officer, saying it allowed her to have a relationship with the community.  

When asked about what she remembers about the day of the incident, Potter said her partner, Officer Anthony Luckey, who she was training, noticed an incorrect blinker being used and an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror. She said if she was patrolling alone that day, she probably wouldn’t have pulled the car over.  

After confirming the registration was expired and finding the warrant for Wright, they pulled him over, she testified. Luckey told Potter there was an “obvious smell” of marijuana in the car.  

Luckey asked Wright to get out of the car several times before the 20-year-old stepped out. The officers attempted to place Wright under arrest, as Potter said there was a warrant out for his arrest.  

Potter said she noticed there was something in Wright’s right hand, so she removed it and placed it in her left hand as Luckey was placing him under arrest. “It just went chaotic,” Potter said, describing the moments after.  

She testified that Wright was attempting to get back into the car as the officers began to struggle with him. Getting emotional on the stand, she said the officers had a “look of fear.” 

Despite the alleged fear in the officer’s eyes, Potter told prosecutors that Wright did not have a gun in the car, any weapon or made any threats toward her.

“We were trying to keep him from driving away. It was chaotic,” she said as she began to shake on the stand. “And then I remember yelling Taser, Taser, Taser and nothing happened and then he told me I shot him,” she said, before breaking down into tears.  

When asked about why she quit the department, Potter said it was because she did not want anything bad to happen to the department or the city as a result of the shooting.  

Before taking the stand, Potter’s lawyers said they planned to argue that the shooting was an “innocent mistake,” BNC previously reported.  

RELATED: Attorney Plans to Argue Shooting of Daunte Wright Was ‘Innocent Mistake’  

If convicted, she faces more than seven years in prison for the first-degree manslaughter charge and four years for the second-degree manslaughter charge. Prosecutors say they will seek a longer sentence if she is convicted. 

RELATED: Majority White Jury Selected for Kim Potter’s Manslaughter Trial  

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