Disgraced Minnesota police officer Kim Potter walked free from prison after serving just 16 months for shooting dead Daunte Wright when she mistook her gun for a Taser during a traffic stop.
Potter, 50, was released from Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee in the early hours of Monday morning to serve the remainder of her sentence on supervised release.
The decision had been made to release her at around 4am local time “out of an abundance of caution” for her safety based on intelligence of “threatening comments directed at her and the potential for violent protests” outside the prison, the corrections department said in a press release.
“Based on the intelligence we gathered, we released Ms. Potter at a time we felt was safest for her and for everyone at the correctional facility,” Andy Skoogman, a spokesperson for the corrections department said.
She will remain on supervised release in the state of Wisconsin until her manslaughter sentence ends on 21 December.
The white Brooklyn Center police officer was sentenced to two years in prison for fatally shooting Wright, a 20-year-old Black man and father-of-one, during a traffic stop in Minnesota on 11 April 2021.
Potter had pulled Wright over for expired licence plate tags and an air freshener hanging in his rear-view window. She then tried to arrest him for an outstanding warrant.
When Wright tried to drive away, Potter fired one shot and killed the unarmed Black man.
The officer, a 26-year veteran officer, said she mistook her firearm for her Taser.
Bodycam footage of the incident revealed her shouting “Taser! Taser! Taser!” before opening fire.
His death came during the trial of Derek Chauvin – another white Minnesota police officer – for the murder of George Floyd, and led to renewed protests calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality across the nation.
In December 2021, Potter was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter over Wright’s death.
She was sentenced to two years in prison – a sentence that was slammed by Wright’s family.
Wright’s mother Katie Wright said at the time that Potter “murdered my son” and that the light sentence had “murdered” him a second time.
“Today the justice system murdered him all over again,” she said.
Potter served just 16 months of the 24-month sentence before walking free from prison on Monday morning.
Ahead of Monday’s release, Ms Wright told CNN she was “dreading” Potter being freed and said that she cannot forgive her for her son’s death.
“Some say I should forgive to be at peace, but how can I? I am so angry. She is going to be able to watch her kids have kids and be able to touch them,”she said.
“I am always scared I am going to forget my son’s voice. It gave us some sense of peace knowing she would not be able to hold her sons. She has two. I can’t hold my son.”
Ms Wright said that she gets some “sense of peace” from knowing that Potter can no longer work in law enforcement and so “will never be able to hurt anybody as a police officer again”.
“That is the only sense of peace we get as a family,” she said.
The timing of her release is due to Minnesota law which requires that inmates serve two-thirds of their sentence in prison – followed by the final third on supervised release. Her release is not based on the decision of a parole board or time off for good behaviour.
Under the terms of her supervised release, she must comply with a number of rules including: she must submit to any unannounced visits or searches, comply with all drug or alcohol testing, not buy or own any type of weapon, not have any contact with victims, and she must not leave Wisconsin without permission.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections listed her current status as “under supervision” as of Monday 24 April.
