Brooklyn Center Mayor Granted Authority Over Police Department; Cop Who Killed Daunte Wright Once Served as Police Union President

After two days of protests over the police killing of Daunte Wright, the city manager of Brooklyn Center has been fired, and it has been revealed that the officer who killed Daunte Wright once served as the union president of the police department, according to the Washington Post.

Brooklyn Center’s City Council voted Monday 3-2 to give authority to the mayor, Mike Elliot, who is Black. Hours later, the mayor fired the city manager Curt Boganey, and replaced him with the city’s deputy manager, Reggie Edwards.

Elliot and Boganey disagreed on how the officer, Kim Potter, should be disciplined. Elliot wants to fire Potter, while Boganey pushed back against that move. Brooklyn Center’s police chief, Tim Gannon, said Potter intended to use her Taser but accidentally drew her handgun when she shot Wright. Potter is on administrative leave.

Brooklyn Center is a charter city, meaning that its city council has broad authority to delegate power in times of crisis. Elliot has the power to fire police officers and other city employees. It is not clear how long Elliot will have this current authority.

What is also unclear is if or when Potter will be fired, which the mayor currently has the power to do. In 2019, she was elected president of the Brooklyn Center Police Officer’s Association.

Here is a some information on Potter, according to the Post:

She was also a longtime member of the Minnesota Law Enforcement Memorial Association, where she served on its “casket team.”Potter, who is married to a former police officer and has two adult sons, most recently worked on the Brooklyn Center police’s negotiation team, the Star Tribune reported.She has been involved in one fatal police shooting in the past.

In 2019, Potter was among the first to arrive at a home in the Minneapolis suburb after two officers fatally shot a mentally ill man six times after he allegedly lunged at them with a knife, according to a report released by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office last year.Once paramedics arrived, Potter ordered both of the officers to leave the house, sit in separate squad cars and deactivate their body cameras.

As the union president at the time, she escorted one of the officers from the scene back to the police station and was later present when BCA investigators interviewed both officers, the report states.The officers were not charged in the fatal shooting after prosecutors found they acted with “reasonable fear” after first firing their Tasers.

Basically, Potter, who has been on the force for 26 years, is trained and well-experienced in helping other cops get through police shootings and it is expected that she will use those very skills for her own benefit.

Brooklyn Center’s 30,000 residents are mostly people of color, according to the U.S. Census. Nearly 45 percent of the city’s residents are white while 29 percent are Black, 16 percent are Asian, and 13.5 percent are Hispanic.

More than 40 people were arrested Monday, as protests continued beyond curfew hours. The unrest resulted in some property damage, leading many people on social media to express frustration over the media’s focus on property versus the lives of Black people killed by police.

Protests are taking place just 10 miles away from the courthouse where Derek Chauvin is on trial for killing George Floyd.