Court documents show Kim Potter likely to claim shooting Daunte Wright was accident

Hennepin County Jail

Kimberly A. Potter

Filings in Kim Potter case. KARE’s Jeremiah Jacobsen reports: “Court documents released to the public Thursday show defense attorneys are expected to argue that former officer Kim Potter’s fatal shooting of Daunte Wright last spring was an accident. … Potter is charged with first and second-degree manslaughter in Wright’s April 2021 shooting death following a traffic stop. … According to the criminal complaint, as officers attempted to arrest Wright on an outstanding warrant, Wright re-entered his vehicle. In body camera footage, Potter can be heard shouting that she will use her Taser before shooting Wright once with her handgun.”

Packed in too tight. At Investigate Midwest, Amanda Perez Pintado and Madison Mcvan report: “Working conditions in meatpacking plants likely led to the spread of COVID-19 in rural areas of the U.S. in the early months of the pandemic, new U.S. Department of Agriculture research shows. … The space between workers, who stand close together on production lines as they make the same cut over and over, was probably the main factor that caused the outbreaks, according to the USDA’s report published last month. … ‘It is a strong possibility that specifically the physical proximity of the workers in meatpacking plants is directly linked to the outbreaks that we saw in the spring and summer of 2020,’ said Thomas Krumel, one of the paper’s authors and now an assistant professor at North Dakota State University.”

Minneapolis Question 2, debated. The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder’s R. B. King reports: “On Tuesday, October 12 the Racial Justice Network (RJN) hosted an engaging Facebook Live discussion on the Question #2 ballot question. The question asks voters to consider changing the Minneapolis Police Department into a Department of Public Safety, which would take a more holistic approach to public safety. The proposal would also eliminate the requirement of a certain number of police officers in the City’s charter and effectively eliminate the role of the police chief as we know it.”

Regents interrupted. The Minnesota Daily’s Gabrielle Lombard and Matthew Voight report: “In two separate incidents, one with University union workers and another with Students for a Democratic Society, representatives briefly interrupted to advocate for their respective demands. … The Board of Regents convene for their September meeting at the McNamara Alumni Center on Thursday, Sept. 9. … The University of Minnesota Board of Regents’ October meeting was marked by protests from both University union workers and members of Students for a Democratic Society, as they demanded pay increases and civilian accountability for University police, respectively. … Protesters entered the boardroom at McNamara Alumni Center both Thursday and Friday, where many regents and administrators were attending the meetings in-person.”

In other news…

Bad crash: “4 School Kids Taken To Hospital After Clay County Bus Crash” [WCCO]

Scary: “Minneapolis Man Indicted for Threats Against Government Officials” [WJON]

Line 3 column: “Columbus’s Real Legacy Is Playing Out in Minnesota” [Esquire]

Oh no: “Gladys the MN Zoo Eurasian eagle owl dies after being found injured” [KARE]

Talk about a state symbol with teeth: “Giant beaver on path towards becoming Minnesota’s state fossil” [KMSP]