Manslaughter charge for Minneapolis cop who shot Black 20-year-old

MINNEAPOLIS: The police officer who shot dead Black 20-year-old Daunte Wright in a Minneapolis suburb after appearing to mistake her gun for her Taser was arrested Wednesday on manslaughter charges.

Minneapolis has been roiled by nights of violent protests after Kim Potter, who is white, opened fire on Wright in his car on Sunday.

Racial tensions were already high in the midwestern US city as it hosts the trial of the white policeman charged with murdering George Floyd, whose death touched off a national reckoning over racial injustice.

Potter, a 26-year police veteran who resigned after Wright's death, faces a maximum of 10 years in jail if convicted of second-degree manslaughter.

She was taken into custody at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in the neighboring city of St. Paul, and is due to appear in court Thursday for a preliminary hearing, according to local media.

"While we appreciate that the district attorney is pursuing justice for Daunte, no conviction can give the Wright family their loved one back," said the Wrights' family lawyer Ben Crump after the arrest.

"This was no accident. This was an intentional, deliberate, and unlawful use of force.

"We will keep fighting for justice for Daunte, for his family, and for all marginalized people of color."

Protesters faced off with police for a third night Tuesday, with more than 60 people arrested, law enforcement officials said.

Riot police moved in to disperse several hundred demonstrators in Brooklyn Center, the suburb where Sunday's shooting took place.

Officers deployed stun grenades while protesters responded by throwing objects including water bottles and bricks.