Jurors at Kim Potter’s trial for the shooting of Daunte Wright have been shown gruesome images from his autopsy and pictures of his body at the scene of his death.
Hennepin County Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Lorren Jackson was the first witness called by the prosecution Monday morning, as day four of the high-profile trial got underway.
Dr. Jackson responded to the scene of the crash that followed Wright’s shooting April 11, 2021. He told jurors that Wright would have died within ‘seconds to minutes’ of receiving a gunshot to his chest.
As the court was shown photographs of Wright’s bloodied body Dr. Jackson told how he had examined Wright’s body at the scene then carefully bagged his hands to preserve any trace evidence and placed in him a sealed body bag.
The photographs were not broadcast at part of the livestream of the trial according to an order form Judge Regina Chu, but Dr. Jackson described what they showed.
The court was shown photos of Wright’s bloodied body and autopsy photos. An illustration of the path of the projectile recovered from Wright’s body is shown
Dr. Jackson told jurors that Wright would have died within ‘seconds to minutes’ of receiving a gunshot to his chest
Officer Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran in the force, claims she accidentally shot Daunte Wright (right) when she reached for her gun instead of her taser during a traffic stop over his expired plates in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota
In this screen grab from video, a photo of a Glock 9mm handgun carried by Potter is entered into evidence
Chu had also limited the number and nature of images that the state could show, stating that she wanted the jury to decide this case based on evidence and facts, not sympathy.
The judge ordered that Wright’s face, in which his eyes were open, be excluded from many of the autopsy pictures.
But pictures of his face – with abrasions and small lacerations on his lip – were among the close to 30 images displayed in court today. The injuries were, Dr. Jackson said, superficial and consistent with Wright’s car crash and efforts to resuscitate him.
The jury saw the bloody gunshot wound’s entry point and partial exit wound as well as the adhesive seals placed over it by officers attempting to stem the bleeding.
An X-Ray showed the bullet still lodged in his body despite having broken the skin at its resting point.
Under direct examination by prosecutor Erin Eldridge, Dr. Jackson explained that he had recovered the bullet from beneath the skin between the fourth and fifth rib.
Pictures of Wright’s chest, the skin reflected back, showed the path the bullet took through his bone and muscle and the holes, torn in the left and right ventricles of his heart.
A graphic showed more clearly the path the hollow-point bullet had torn through Wright’s chest wall, heart and lungs as it ‘mushroomed’ on impact. According to Dr. Jackson ‘the majority of the injury was to Wright’s heart.’
He found approximately 3 liters of blood in Wright’s chest – more than half the amount of blood Wright would have had in his entire body.
Dr. Jackson explained, ‘A person of Wright’s size and build would have approximately 4.5-5.5 liters of blood within his entire body. When you lose more than half of that rapidly it’s a life-threatening injury.’
He estimated that Wright could have lost consciousness within 10-15 seconds if he lost blood supply to his brain and that he would have died in a matter of minutes.
In this screen grab from video, the bullet recovered from Wright’s body is shown as Dr. Lorren Jackson takes the stand
Former Brooklyn Center cop Kim Potter, 49, is seen with her legal team during day three of her trial Friday
Earlier in the trial, jurors were shown bodycam and dash cam footage of the dramatic moment Potter shot Wright dead after ‘accidentally’ pulling out her gun instead of her taser
Johnson testified that he opened the passenger-side door after Wright started to pull away from another officer, leaned into the car, pushed the shift knob forward to make sure it was in park and reached for the keys to try to turn off the vehicle
Toxicology tests showed cannabinoids – THC and metabolites of marijuana – in Wright’s body.
With no dispute over the cause of Wright’s death defense attorney Earl Gray’s cross examination was brief. During it, he established that the cannabis metabolites found in Wright’ blood appeared, ‘at the high end of number that I see.’
He also established that Wright could have been alive for up to a minute after he drove away.
As the morning continued Bureau of Criminal Apprehension forensic scientist Melissa Loren took the stand.
Loren was the crime scene leader on April 11. She told the court how she had ensured all evidence had been identified, videoed, photographed and preserved.
Several images of the crash-damaged car were displayed in court as she testified. By far the most disturbing were those showing the driver’s seat.
The paperwork through which Wright had leafed trying to find insurance documents was bloodstained and scattered on the seat in which blood pooled. A spent cartridge casing was clearly visible on it.
Potter’s gun, made safe for the court, was also displayed during Loren’s testimony.
Flanked by her attorneys, the ex-cop shifted uncomfortably in her seat and looked down as the gun was brought into the room.
Prosecutors file motion casting doubt on fellow cops’ testimony
Prosecutors have cast doubt on the credibility of law enforcement officers testifying in the Kim Potter trial by alleging that the ex-cop’s former role as Police Union President may be a source of favor and bias.
Judge Regina Chu has already upheld Potter’s defense’s objections to the state’s attempts to bring her union role into evidence.
Now Attorney General Keith Ellison has filed notice that he intends to bring a motion to ‘elicit testimony related to union membership and employment for the purpose of establishing possible bias in various law enforcement witnesses.’
The notice, filed in Hennepin County District Court Monday, states, ‘Defendant Kimberly Ann Potter is a former Brooklyn Center Police Officer. While employed in that capacity, Defendant also held roles within the police union, including being the president of that union – a role that she held on the day that she shot Daunte Wright.’
According to the notice the 26-year law enforcement veteran’s position ‘afforded her an elevated level of respect and admiration among her co-workers and union members.’
It states, ‘Several of the law enforcement witnesses are current of former Brooklyn Center Police Department employees who are or were members of the same union. One such witness has already testified that he consulted with, worked with, and relied on Defendant in her capacity as the union president many times.’
This statement appears to be a thinly veiled reference to Mychal Johnson who was in many ways the state’s star witness but delivered testimony far more helpful to the defense when he took the stand Friday.
Johnson, now a Patrol Major with Goodhue County Sheriff’s Department, was a supervising Sergeant with Brooklyn Center Police Department on April 11, 2021.
He told the court that he believed that he could have been gravely injured or even killed had Wright managed to drive away with him ‘dangling’ out of his car.
Bodycam footage shown in court showed Johnson talking to a distraught Potter in the moments after the shooting and telling her, ‘Kim that guy was trying to drive away with me in the car.’
Testifying under oath he said stood by his contention that Potter’s actions had been justified by the threat posed to his life. Asked if he would have drawn his taser under the same circumstances he said, ‘Yes.’
In fact, he said, under Minnesota statute Potter would have been within her rights to draw her gun and shoot Wright.
In his filing, AG Ellison insists that the jury is ‘entitled to learn about [Potter’s Union role] and use to assess the credibility of witnesses in its role as factfinder.’
According to the AG, ‘This is a task the jury will not be able to properly complete if it is denied knowledge of such information.’
In a second notion of motion also filed Monday the state moved to prevent precisely the sort of testimony given by Johnson when he stated that Potter would have been justified to use deadly force ‘by statute.’
In the filing AG Ellison has sought to prevent the defense from eliciting ‘expert’ testimony from lay witnesses.
State witness BCA Special Agent Brent Petersen’s evidence proved surprisingly contentious with defense attorney Earl Gray rising to object on multiple occasions as prosecutor Joshua Larson showed a composite video made up of Potter and Johnson’s bodycam footage and the footage from Potter and Luckey’s squad car.
Petersen testified that he had observed Potter manipulate’ her holster as she approached Wright’s vehicle.
He noted, ‘I’ve seen it before…I myself have done that when I was on patrol. It caught my attention.
‘I carried the same type of holster, a level 2, it would be my practice at times when I was making a traffic stop to unlatch the first level of protection or safety on the holster just to give myself a little of an advantage should I need to draw.
It would just make drawing the firearm easier more efficient.’
As Larson repeatedly asked Petersen to describe what he saw, Gray objected that Petersen was not a video expert and that it was for the jury, ‘not this officer’ to decide what they saw
After Judge Chu dismissed the jury for a lunch break the interaction between the state and the defense became more heated as Gray expanded on his point.
He accused the state of trying to impeach their own witness, Mychal Johnson, through Petersen’s description of sections of video.
Former Brooklyn Center sergeant Johnson was called as a state witness Friday but did more for the defense than the prosecution when he told the court that Potter would have been justified in shooting Wright.
Today Judge Chu sided with Gray as she told Larson, ‘You’ve got a witness telling a jury what is on a piece of evidence. The evidence is the video, and this is more like final argument material where you stop the video and say, ‘Look, both of his feet are on the ground. He’s not hanging out of the car.’
‘Why do you need a supposed expert witness to describe what’s on a video?’
Larson attempted to argue that Petersen was not qualified as an expert witness but that reviewing the video footage was a key part of his criminal investigation.
Judge Chu slapped that down saying, ‘When you call the BCA given his position the jury’s going to get the impression that he is an expert.’
Earlier today, ahead of court proceedings Judge Chu ruled against the state’s attempt to submit seven still photographs that, they hoped, would make their point that Johnson was not in the car when Wright took off.
Judge Chu doubled down on this over Larson’s objections telling him, ‘The photographs don’t give the full picture and can be misleading.’
Wrapping up the debate that she said was ‘getting off point,’ Judge Chu warned the state, ‘There’s no need for this officer to testify as to what the video evidence shows.’
State witness BCA Special Agent Brent Petersen’s evidence proved surprisingly contentious with defense attorney Earl Gray rising to object on multiple occasions
The state continued their questioning Monday afternoon by calling BCA agents involved in the investigation into the shooting. Among them was Senior Special Agent Sam McGinnis who collected Potter’s duty belt and photographed the officer.
During this testimony prosecutor Larson brought Potter’s belt, gun and taser holsters into evidence, showing them with the jury.
At one point he had Agent McGinnis demonstrate to them how a taser is used asking him to activate it for the benefit of the jury to demonstrate the torch, LED light and laser that come on when the battery is loaded, and safety flipped off.
The court heard that Potter had only owned the taser since March 26, 2021, and that she had worked ten shifts between then and the day of the shooting.
McGinnis told the court that officers had to perform ‘spark’ or function tests on tasers before every shift. An audit of Potter’s taser showed that she had not performed that test since April 9 despite working April 10 and 11.
Despite several attempts, and over Gray’s objections, Larson failed to establish the significance of this failure.
The testimony landed more surely when he turned to the differences between the Taser 7 and the Glock 17.
Showing a picture of the two weapons side by side Larson asked McGinnis to list the differences between them.
McGinnis told the court that the taser was yellow while the Glock was black; the taser has a stocky body compared to the gun and it had a shorter, wider grip than the Glock.
He continued to point out that the taser grip has some light texturing on the side and back while the Glock is textured most of the way round; the taser trigger is flat with indentations while the Glock trigger is curved and the taser has a safety catch where the firearm has none.
McGinnis also agreed that there was no laser or LED when the firearm was used.
Jurors will be able to compare the weapons for themselves during deliberation when both will be made safe and given to them to hold and feel.
Under cross examination Paul Engh focused on the novelty of the taser 7 and its similarities to Potter’s firearm.
In fact, he claimed, Brooklyn Center Police Department had only just purchased the Taser 7 and Potter was the only officer to have one in her possession.
He pointed out, ‘It’s designed so you pull a trigger, like a gun. And you aim it [like a gun].
‘And while the taser is yellow the top and the handle is black.’
Returning to Larson’s questions regarding the spark test Engh established that when McGinnis checked Potter’s taser it was functional and had 78% battery life.
‘You have no evidence that the taser was not functioning?’ he asked. McGinnis said he did not.
‘Did you ever enquire of the taser manufacturer,’ Engh asked, ‘Why they couldn’t be shaped in a different fashion to avoid any confusion when they could easily have shaped it differently?’
On Friday it was revealed that fellow officers feared that Potter would take her own life in the wake of the shooting and took steps to ensure that she did not have a loaded firearm in her possession.
It came in testimony from Mychal Johnson, the officer who claims his life was saved by Potter’s actions as, he believed, Wright was trying to drive off with him ‘dangling’ out of the car.
Brooklyn Center Patrol Major Mychal Johnson, who assisted officers at the scene on April 11, took the stand on Friday
Johnson told jurors that he had taken Potter’s gun from her after the shooting as it might be used in evidence in a future court hearing, but he handed her his own.
Moments later, he told the court, a fellow officer expressed concern that Potter might harm herself.
‘Officer Potter was sitting in a squad, and I discreetly asked if I could see my firearm and was able to remove the magazine and one round in the chamber so at that time there were no rounds in the chamber,’ he said.
Despite Johnson’s claim being key to Potter’s defense he had been called as a witness for the prosecution.
Earlier Minnesota’s Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank took Johnson through the traffic stop and shooting as methodically as possible, apparently at pains not to elicit any opinion from the officer who knew Potter both professionally and socially.
Johnson, now a patrol major with Goodhue County Sheriff’s Department was a sergeant with Brooklyn Center Police Department and Potter’s supervisor at the time.
He was on the scene because he had responded to rookie Officer Anthony Luckey’s request for back-up at the fateful traffic stop that day.
But while Frank kept emotion out of Johnson’s testimony there was no way to remove it from previously unseen footage from Johnson’s bodycam that was played in court.
An emotional Potter was seen screaming and burying her face in her hands moments after the shooting
As the footage played on Potter could be seen standing at a wire fencing by the roadside repeating over and over, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’
Johnson is heard in the footage trying to comfort Potter, telling her to breathe and sit down as she cries saying she is going to prison
On Friday, jurors saw the third officer’s perspective for the first time as he reached into Wright’s car and tried to prevent the 20-year-old from driving away.
They saw him reach for the gear shift and attempt to turn Wright’s keys in the ignition.
Then they saw Johnson grab Wright’s arm as he struggled and appeared to try to get to the gear shift.
Johnson told the court that he ‘heard a loud pop’ but didn’t immediately register that a shot had been fired.
As the footage played on the jury once again saw a hysterical Potter yelling, ‘I grabbed the wrong f***ing gun. I shot him. Oh my God.’
Now they heard Johnson comfort her, telling her to breathe and sit down. ‘I’m going to prison,’ she said.
Johnson could be heard replying, ‘No you’re not. Kim, that guy was trying to take off with me in the car.’