A jury found Kim Potter guilty of manslaughter on Thursday in the death of Daunte Wright.
Potter remained composed as the judge announced the convictions for manslaughter and reckless use of a firearm.
Potter will face several years in prison. She will be sentenced in February.
After the verdict was announced, the former officer was taken into custody despite her attorneys' request that she remain out on bail until she is sentenced. Chu said that he couldn't treat this case differently than any other case.
The jury asked the judge on Tuesday what they should do if they couldn't reach a verdict. They were told to continue deliberations for four days.
Potter accidentally shot and killed the 20-year-old Black driver during a traffic stop in the Minneapolis suburbs when she reached for her gun instead of her stun gun.
The prosecutor told the jury that the case was not a little oopsie. This was not putting the wrong date on the check. This wasn't entering the wrong password. This was a mistake of epic proportions.
The police body camera footage shows Potter yelling before she fired her gun. Oh, shit. I shot him. She said she grabbed the wrong gun. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. I will be going to prison.
Potter was charged with manslaughter over Wright's death. Prosecutors had to prove that she acted with recklessness or carelessness when she mixed up the weapons.
Potter, who resigned after the incident, had always admitted to the shooting but had been adamant that it was an accident during a police encounter that was quickly spiraling out of control and for which she did not deserve to go to prison. I am sorry it happened. Potter apologized last week. I did not want to hurt anyone.
Earl Gray said that Potter had made a mistake that could not be seen as a crime.
Gray blamed Wright for trying to flee as officers tried to arrest him, and Potter for trying to respond with an appropriate, but mistaken and fatal, use of force.
Gray said that Dunke Wright caused his own death. Those are the hard facts of the evidence.
Wright was pulled over by Potter and a junior officer because he had expired tags and an air freshener hanging from his car's mirror, a violation of state law. Potter testified that if she had been alone, she wouldn't have stopped Wright because an air freshener was a minor violation and people were having trouble updating their registration due to the coronaviruses.
When they searched his name, they found a warrant out for his arrest. Wright was charged with carrying a handgun without a permit and running from police.
Potter said that learning of the gun charge made her and her fellow officers wary that Wright might have a weapon on him. She admitted in court that she did not see a weapon in Wright's possession and that he never threatened or punched her or her fellow officers.
Wright was nervous and flustered during the police encounter, and his girlfriend testified that he was with her during the traffic stop.
She told the court how Wright was on the phone with his mother when he was shot, and how he tried to save his life.
She said she tried to scream his name and hold onto the wound, but she didn't know what to do. I tried to have him talk to me. I kept saying, "Daunte, just say something please, just talk to me." I know he tried, but he couldn't.
"I replay that image in my head daily," she said.
Bryant testified that she tried to call her son back, but was told by Albrecht-Payton that she was not allowed to. Bryant said that she said that they shot him and that she faced the phone toward the driver's seat. My son was lying down.
Less than a year after the murder of George Floyd, the fatal shooting of a police officer renewed protests against police killings in Minneapolis. Dozens of people were arrested.
Potter was portrayed by prosecutors as an experienced veteran of the force who had undergone extensive annual training on taser use, only to act with extreme recklessness.
Accidents can still be crimes.
