US City agrees to pay $3.2m for Daunte Wright’s Killing by a police officer.
The family of Daunte Wright, a Black man who was shot and killed by a police officer who claimed she mistakenly thought she was using her taser instead of her pistol, will get $3.2 million from a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the US.
Late on Tuesday, attorneys issued a statement saying that until an agreement involving greater training for the city’s police officers has been reached, the settlement of the wrongful death case that Wright’s family brought against Brooklyn Center will not be finalized.
“The comprehensive settlement in this tragic case will provide a meaningful measure of accountability to the family for their deep loss,” they said. “The family hopes his legacy is a positive one and prevents any other family from enduring this type of grief.”
The 20-year-old was stopped for having expired registration tags on his automobile in April 2021 and was then shot once in the chest by white Brooklyn Center officer Kim Potter.
The now-former cop was later found guilty of first- and second-degree manslaughter and given a two-year jail term.
A nationwide outrage followed the death, which many saw as another instance of unwarranted police violence against Black Americans.
It happened close to the scene of the murder of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, whose act helped spark protests around the country and the globe.
The news coincides with a number of settlements involving Black persons who were shot by police.
The biggest pretrial settlement of its sort in US history, according to attorneys, was reached last year when the city of Minneapolis agreed to pay $27 million to Floyd’s family.
In September 2020, the city of Louisville, Kentucky, agreed to compensate Breonna Taylor’s family $12 million and change its police procedures. During a bungled raid, Taylor was fatally shot by cops inside her house.
After Justine Ruszczyk Damond phoned 911 to report a possible assault near her home in July 2017, one of the cops who responded to her call, Mohamed Noor, fatally shot her.
Minnesota already paid $20 million to her family. Damond was Caucasian, whereas Noor is an American Somali.
According to co-counsel Antonio M Romanucci, members of Wright’s family “hope and believe the measures of change to policing, policies and training will create important improvements to the community in Daunte’s name.” “Nothing can bring him back, but the family hopes his legacy is a positive one and prevents any other family from enduring the type of grief they will live with for the rest of their lives.”
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Brooklyn Center’s city council adopted a number of improvements as a result of the aftermath from Wright’s murder, including the employment of social workers and other qualified experts to react to medical, mental health, and social needs calls without the need for police.
NEW: The family of Daunte Wright has reached a settlement with the city of Brooklyn Center for $3.25 million. pic.twitter.com/9Pu4lR4pHT
— Mary McGuire (@mcguirereports) June 22, 2022
