Brooklyn Center, MN Mayor Mike Elliott appeared on CNN with protests underway in his city for a second consecutive night following the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright.
Mayor Elliott said that with command authority of the Brooklyn Center Police Department transferred to his office earlier in the day Monday, orders on the ground are now being given from the regional command center put in-place to work public safety around the Derek Chauvin trial.
Elliott said that the decision to dismiss City Manager City Manager Curt Boganey was a collective one, with the city council voting 4-1 to relieve him of his duties.
“They felt that it was a lack of leadership early on in how things unfolded with the situation,” Elliott said, adding he spoke to Daunte Wright’s father earlier in the day Monday and said he will continue to try to connect with his mother this week.
“All they want is justice to be done for their son and for there to be full truth and accountability,” the mayor said. “That’s what we are committed to doing.”
The mayor confirmed that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) was correct in their identification of Kim Potter as the officer who fatally shot Wright following a traffic stop on Sunday.
Elliott also pleaded with the people still protesting outside the Brooklyn Center police station well past curfew to go home.
“We want people to go home,” the mayor said. “People are still upset, and the goal right now is to try and disperse the crowd and trying to get people to go home.”
The Brooklyn Center police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright following a traffic stop Sunday has been identified as Officer Kim Potter, according to a press release from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA).
Potter has been with Brooklyn Center PD for 26 years, BCA notes.
She has been placed on standard administrative leave, city officials said at a press conference earlier in the day.
President Biden tweeted this evening about the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright, saying he was thinking about Wright and his family “and the pain, anger, and trauma that Black America experiences every day.”
Earlier on Monday, Biden called for “peace and calm” in the wake of Wright’s fatal encounter with police in Minnesota, saying his death does not justify violence or looting.
Read his tweet:
Daunte Wright died from a gunshot wound to the chest and the manner of death has been ruled a homicide, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Wright was fatally shot by an unnamed Brooklyn Center police officer during a traffic stop on Sunday afternoon, sparking a night of protests in the small city northwest of Minneapolis.
Brooklyn Center City Manager Curt Boganey has been relieved of his duties, effective immediately, Mayor Mike Elliott said in a tweet Monday afternoon.
“I will continue to work my hardest to ensure good leadership at all levels of our city government,” Elliott wrote.
An unnamed Brooklyn Center police officer fatally shot Daunte Wright during a traffic stop on Sunday afternoon, sparking a night of protests in the small city northwest of Minneapolis.
The city’s deputy city manager will assume Boganey’s duties moving forward, according to Elliott.
Command authority of Minnesota’s Brooklyn Center Police Department has been transferred to Mayor Mike Elliott’s office following a city council vote, the mayor tweetedMonday afternoon.
A Brooklyn Center Police officer fatally shot Daunte Wright during a traffic stop on Sunday afternoon, sparking a night of protests in the small city northwest of Minneapolis.
Elliot said the motion passed with a 3-2 vote.
In addition to the city curfews called for Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has also issued a three-county curfew to go into effect at 7 p.m. CT Monday night.
The counties of Hennepin, which includes Brooklyn Center where Daunte Wright was shot Sunday afternoon, Ramsey and Anoka will be under curfew beginning at 7 p.m. local time and extending until 6 a.m. CT. Walz said.
“It’s not debatable, you’re not making the case, you’re hurting the case, you’re undermining the grief, and you hear it from families time and time again. Don’t you dare step into our space where we’re trying to enact change through our system,” Walz said.
Exemptions will be in-place for credentialed media, “people doing their essential work” and “citizens patrolling and protecting some of their neighborhoods,” the governor added.
The National Basketball Association and National Hockey League have postponed home games scheduled for tonight.
Monday night’s NBA game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Brooklyn Nets was slated to be played at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Monday night’s NHL game between the Minnesota Wild and the St. Louis Blues was scheduled at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.
A statement provided by the league reads as follows:
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said in a statement that they have sent case of Daunte Wright’s shooting to the Washington County Attorney.
“The five Urban County Attorneys adopted a new practice and procedure concerning the police use of deadly force cases one year ago, to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest in handling such cases,” Freeman said in a statement.
The County Attorney also offered his “sincerest sympathy and prayers to the family of Daunte Wright during this heartbreaking time.”
In the wake of Sunday’s police shooting of Daunte Wright in nearby Brooklyn Center, the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul have called for a curfew to take effect Monday night, from 7 p.m local time. The curfews will extend until 6 a.m. local time Tuesday morning in both cities
“And the unraveling of the sacrifices that people have made for so long, that cannot, that will not be tolerated. We must seek peace tonight. And as of this afternoon, I have declared a state of emergency in the city of Minneapolis, and we are following that up with a curfew that will begin at 7 p.m. tonight.”
Credentialed media, emergency responders, and community patrol organizations will be exempt from the curfew, Frey said.
The curfew with the same hours and exemptions has also been called for St. Paul, Mayor Melvin Carter said.
The American Civil Liberties Union issued a statement over the death of Daunte Wright, saying “he should be alive today.”
“Taking a step back to listen to the circumstances surrounding Daunte Wright’s killing hammers home the heartbreaking truth that we’ve known for so long — Black people living in America are subject to having their lives violently ripped away from them and the ones they love at the hands of our government for absolutely nothing,” the statement said.
The ACLU is also asking for the officers and agencies involved to be identified.
President Biden on Monday called for “peace and calm” in the wake of Daunte Wright’s fatal encounter with police in Minnesota, saying his death does not justify violence or looting.
The President also said that he’s awaiting a full investigation into the matter before weighing in on the officer’s intentions. He also noted he has seen the body camera footage of Wright’s traffic stop.
The President said he’d been briefed on the situation and continued by urging against looting and violence in the wake of Wright’s death.
“But in the meantime, I want to make it clear again, there is absolutely no justification, none, for looting. No justification for violence. Peaceful protest – understandable. And the fact is that, you know, we do know that the anger, pain and trauma that exists in the Black community in that environment is real. It’s serious and it’s consequential. But it will not justify violence and/or looting,” Biden said.
“In the meantime, I’m calling for peace and calm. And we should listen to Daunte’s mom, who is calling for peace and calm,” the President added.
When asked if the federal government should be surging in federal resources to keep the peace, Biden said there were already federal resources on the ground, including those already in place in preparation for the ongoing Derek Chauvin trial.
“There will not be a lack of help and support from the federal government if the local authorities believe it’s needed,” he said.
Asked whether he thinks the situation is on a razor’s edge, Biden said, “I’m not going to speculate now. I’m hopeful there’ll be a verdict and an outcome that will be supported by the vast majority of people in the region and that’s my expectation.”
An attorney representing the family of Daunte Wright, who was fatally shot by a Minnesota police officer during a traffic stop on Sunday, said the shooting was “entirely preventable and inhumane.”
Earlier today, Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said the shooting appeared to be accidental, saying the officer who shot Wright fired a handgun instead of a Taser.
“Daunte Wright is yet another young Black man killed at the hands of those who have sworn to protect and serve all of us — not just the whitest among us,” attorney Ben Crump said in a statement today. Crump and his co-counsel Jeff Storms are presenting the Wright family.
NAACP National President Derrick Johnson issued a statement Monday afternoon regarding the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright.
Johnson noted the proximity of Wright’s incident with the location where George Floyd died on May 25, 2020.
“Daunte Wright was shot and killed yesterday, just north of where George Floyd was suffocated less than a year ago. Both were fathers, both were Black men, both died at the hands of police,” he wrote.
Monday’s Minnesota Twins afternoon home game versus the Boston Red Sox has been postponed following Sunday’s fatal police-involved shooting of Daunte Wright.
The Twins released the following statement:
City and police officers provided new details moments ago about the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.
Wright’s death on Sunday sparked protests in the city, which is about 10 miles from where former police officer Derek Chauvin is on trial for the killing of another Black man, George Floyd.
Here’s what we know about the shooting:
Reporters pressed Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott and City Manager Curt Boganey about why the name of the officer who shot Daunte Wright has not been released.
Mayor Elliott said it was “privileged” information at the moment since the shooting is under investigation. He did express willingness to share additional information about the female officer in question.
Earlier in the news conference, Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said Wright was fatally shot during a traffic stop after a police officer shouted “Taser!” but fired a handgun instead of the non-lethal stun gun.
Boganey said the name of the officer would be released “shortly.”
Boganey said he would not instruct the police chief to release the officer’s name during the news conference because it would be “inappropriate.”
Both activists and journalists participated in the news conference, which became heated at times. One person accused the city manager of “working harder to protect a killer cop than a victim of police murder.”
Police Chief Tim Gannon appeared to get emotional during a tense news conference while discussing the protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, last night.
Gannon began to argue with people in the room while talking about last night’s events. He said, “I was front and center at the protest. At the riot.”
A person in the room responded “don’t do that,” adding, “there was no riot.” The chief responded, “there was.” He said that during the protest one officer from Hennepin County was hit in the head with a brick and transported to the hospital.
After this exchange, another news conference attendee asked the chief, “What is on your heart?” He became emotional as he tried to respond.
Watch:
While the officer who shot Daunte Wright is on administrative leave and will not return to duty until it has concluded, Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon also said, “we can look at the video and ascertain whether or not she’ll be returning.”
“She’s a very senior officer,” Gannon also told reporters.
Watch:
Tim Gannon, chief of Brooklyn Center Police, warned that the body camera footage of the shooting of Daunte Wright was “graphic” in nature. Police showed the footage at today’s news conference.
Gannon described the shooting as an “accidental discharge” by the officer, who he believes intended to use a Taser.
Gannon said that officers are usually trained to carry handguns on their “dominant side” and Taser on their “weak side.”
“As I watch the video and listen to the officer’s commands it is my belief that the officer had the intention to deploy their Taser but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet, this appears to me, from what I viewed, and the officer’s reaction in distress immediately after, that this was an accidental discharge,” Gannon said.
Watch Chief Tim Gannon’s statement:
