First modification:
This Tuesday and after two consecutive nights of protests and riots, the agent who shot and killed the African American, Daunte Wright, last Sunday during a traffic inspection, and the head of the Minnesota Police Department, where the events occurred, after classifying the event as an “accident”. The victim’s family rejects this version and asks for justice.
The resignations of Officer Kim Potter and Minnesota Police Chief Tim Gannon came two days after anti-racism protests left at least 50 people in custody.
Mike Elliott, the mayor of Brooklyn Center, the city where the incident occurred, said he hopes these resignations will help ease tensions and stop the unrest.
“I hope this brings some calm to the community … We want to send a message to the community that we are taking this situation seriously,” Elliott said.
The mayor added that he had yet to accept Potter’s resignation, leaving the door open to fire her. This move, rather than allowing him to resign, could negatively affect his pension and his ability to find security work elsewhere, he said.
Riots erupt in Portland (USA) after fatal shooting by police of a black motorist in Minnesota. Grace Morgan / via REUTERS pic.twitter.com/9neCE1XOmz
– Reuters Latam (@ReutersLatam) April 14, 2021
But discontent continues in the streets. The protests even spread to other parts of the country. Daunte Wright is the most recent case of an African-American who is killed by a police officer in the United States, apparently in an action of police abuse with racial overtones.
The events occurred last Sunday when Wright was stopped in the vehicle he was driving during a traffic inspection. The official version indicated that the reason was to have the license plates of the car expired.
As Gannon defended during a press conference on Monday, at that time the uniformed officers discovered an arrest warrant pending against him, after allegedly failing to appear in court for possessing a weapon without permission.
Later, and in the midst of a supposed resistance from the young man, agent Potter wanted to take out his Taser to immobilize him, but accidentally took his pistol, for which he shot him killing him.
The now former chief of the Minnesota Police defended that it was an accident, which further ignited the controversy.
Wright’s family rejects the police version
The parents of the murdered young man categorically rejected the official version of an alleged accident.
“I cannot accept that. I lost my son. He will never come back. I cannot accept that, a mistake, that does not even sound good. This agent has been in the police force for more than 26 years. I cannot accept that,” he said Aubrey Wright, the victim’s mother, during an interview with local television.
One of the family’s lawyers, Jeffrey Storms, criticized as “inappropriate and insufficient” that the police department classified everything as an accident without an in-depth investigation.
“There were a series of intentional events that led to the death of their son and we need to find out exactly why each of those intentional acts happened … They want accountability, justice and answers,” he said.
This death sparked new protests and clashes between protesters and the security forces, just in the same city where the trial against another former agent, Derek Chauvin, accused of murdering George Floyd in May 2020, is taking place, a death that sparked one of the biggest waves of protests against police brutality inside and outside the United States.
The modest north Minneapolis suburb has seen its demographics change in recent years. In 2000, more than 70% of the city was inhabited by white people. Today, the majority of residents are Black, Asian or Latino and the issue of racial discrimination continues to weigh heavily on society as a possible cause of police abuse.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
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source https://pledgetimes.com/minnesota-police-chief-and-officer-involved-in-daunte-wrights-death-resign/
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