Several members of Daunte Wright‘s family spoke out on Tuesday alongside other families who gained national prominence after losing a loved one to state sanctioned violence.
“It was the worst day of my life,” Wright’s mother, Katie Wright said as she stood backed by her family.
Wright explained that she was on the phone with her son after he was stopped by Brooklyn Center police on April 11. Wright claims her son told her he was pulled over due to the air-fresheners in the rear-view mirror. As she attempted to provide her son with her insurance information, she said she heard her son exchange words with the officer leading to a scuffle. Seconds later the call ended.
The next call she received was life changing. A woman riding with Daunte told her that her son was shot and was now unresponsive.
“That was the last time I seen my son. That was the last time I heard from my son and I have no explanation,” she said through tears.
One of the most emotional moments came as Naisha Wright, Daunte’s aunt, grieved openly over her family’s loss. She said that she wanted to represent her brother Aubrey Wright, Daunte’s father, who refused to attend the press conference due to his heartbreak.
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“They murdered my nephew! She killed my nephew. Every pistol, every taser has a safety on it,” she began.
“I watched that video like everybody else watched that video, that woman held that gun in front of her for a long damn time,” she continued in reference to the theory that Potter mistook her taser for a gun.
“He was loved! He belonged to us!” she said.
“It is unbelievable, something I could not fathom that in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a suburb 10 miles from where the Chauvin trial regarding George Floyd was taking place, that a police officer would shoot and kill another unarmed Black man,” said civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is represent the family.
Crump continued, “If ever there was a time when nobody in America should be killed by police it was during this pinnacle trial of Derek Chauvin which I believe is one of the most impactful civil rights police excessive fuse of force cases in the history of America.”
The families of George Floyd and Emmett Till were also in attendance at the news conference, along with prominent gun control advocates.
Brooklyn Center police claim that Wright was stopped over his license tags, to which Crump said was a remnant of “driving while Black.”
“We’re still in the midst of a pandemic where many people could not get the tags on their license plates renewed because the DMV, like everything in America was shut down,” said Crump.
Police were told to be sensitive favor this reason Crump explained, “But I guess when you’re driving while Black, people sometimes forget memos and initiatives about,” he continued.
At the same time, Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott held a dueling press conference where he announced the resignation of Kim Potter, the officer who fired the fatal shot, and Tim Gannon the Brooklyn Center Police Chief.
“So obviously it’s been an eventful several hours for the city. We are still experiencing trauma in our community from the events that unfolded which led to the killing of Daunte Wright,” said Elliott.
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