The parents of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who was shot and killed by a white police officer in a Minneapolis suburb on Sunday, said they “can’t accept” the notion that their son’s killing was “a mistake.”
“I lost my son, he’s never coming back,” Daunte Wright’s father, Aubrey Wright, told ABC News’ Robin Roberts in an exclusive interview Tuesday on “Good Morning America.”
“I can’t accept that — a mistake, that doesn’t even sound right,” he added. “This officer has been on the force for 26 years. I can’t accept that.”
Daunte Wright was driving in Brooklyn Center, about 10 miles northwest of Minneapolis, when he was stopped by police on Sunday afternoon. The officers initially pulled him over for an expired registration tag on his car but determined during the traffic stop that he had an outstanding gross misdemeanor warrant, according to Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon.
As police attempted to take him into custody, Daunte Wright reentered the vehicle and one of the officers fired their weapon, striking him. The officer — identified by authorities as Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Center Police Department — intended to deploy her Taser instead of her gun when she “accidentally” shot Daunte Wright, Gannon said.
The car sped off, traveling several blocks before crashing into another vehicle. A female passenger in Daunte Wright’s car sustained non-life-threatening injuries during the crash and was transported to a nearby hospital. The passengers in the other vehicle were not injured, according to Gannon.
Officers and medical personnel “attempted life-saving measures” on Daunte Wright but he died at the scene, Gannon said.