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Daunte Wright family considers lawsuit as push for justice follows funeral
Just under two weeks ago, former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter shot and killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop.
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. (FOX 9) - Just under two weeks ago, former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter shot and killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop.
The next day, then police chief Tim Gannon, who has since resigned, said he believed she may have mistaken her gun for her taser.
On Friday, family members spoke about their fight for justice for Daunte, pointing to the guilty verdict in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin over the death of George Floyd.
"This feels like a nightmare, only thing is it’s not a bad dream, it’s reality," Daunte Wright Jr.’s mother Chyna Whitaker said.
Whitaker is struggling with the loss of her son’s father. On Friday, she penned an open letter to Daunte Wright Senior.
"What am I supposed to tell my son when he grows up and ask about you? When I look at his face it makes me want to cry," Whitaker read. "I miss you and I will do anything for one last hug. It’s too bad I wasn’t able to say goodbye."
The family says it’s considering suing the city of Brooklyn Center over Wright’s death.
"The civil lawsuit is something that we do to get justice, you can’t bring him back," Chyna’s lawyer Thomas Bowers said. "I would do anything to bring him back too if I could."
Bowers says he will try to work out a resolution with Brooklyn Center in advance, to avoid a lawsuit.
"Now that Daunte is on his journey home to our Father, now we can begin to try to get justice for him," Bowers said.
They also spoke out about comments from the head of the Minnesota Police Union, who said Daunte’s non-compliance caused his own death.
"To say if he complied then he’ll be alive, you’re basically saying that we’ve got a right to execute you when we want to," Bowers said.
Asked about whether second-degree manslaughter is an appropriate charge for Kim Potter, the family’s attorney made clear that he has not seen all the facts, but added that it "doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look at the video and see she may have known she had a gun instead of a taser in her hand."
Bowers also pointed to Potter’s 26 years of experience as a police officer when questioning if the shooting was truly unintentional.