Police in suburban Minneapolis continued to reply over the weekend to information that an officer confronted Daunte Wright’s mom for stopping on a freeway shoulder and recording officers.
Katie Wright held a information convention Thursday to current her case to the general public: She mentioned she stopped her sedan on a freeway to report officers in the midst of a visitors cease.
“I pulled over to the shoulder, stopped to report to make it possible for these infants — it was two younger youngsters; they needed to have been of their 20s — to ensure they bought dwelling protected, as a result of we all know we’ve got a police downside in Minnesota,” Wright mentioned.
“All I used to be doing was my civic responsibility to drag over and make it possible for these infants bought dwelling protected to their households, as a result of I don’t need what occurred to me to occur to another households,” she mentioned Thursday.
The Brooklyn Middle Police Division, which didn’t particularly say the officer who confronted Wright was inside coverage or the legislation, launched a timeline of key occasions associated to the interplay, which occurred Wednesday.
The police division, the employer of Daunte Wright’s killer earlier than the officer resigned final 12 months, additionally launched physique digicam video and audio from the scene of the freeway confrontation.
Daunte Wright was 20 when he was fatally shot by Officer Kim Potter.
Potter mentioned she meant to deploy a Taser after Wright tried to get again in his car throughout a visitors cease on April 11, 2021. Potter was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and sentenced in February to 2 years in jail.
Daunte Wright’s dying, within the wake of the homicide of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, impressed renewed demonstrations by justice and police reform protesters.
That historical past was private for Katie Wright as she pointed her digicam at officers from the identical company that stopped her son in 2021.
Considered one of three Brooklyn Middle officers on the scene Wednesday initially motioned for Wright to maintain shifting, the suburban police division mentioned in an announcement. Wright didn’t comply.
She had stopped her sedan on or close to the middle median’s shoulder within the route of northbound visitors, and officers have been in the midst of what the police division described in an announcement as “a high-risk cease” on the precise shoulder of southbound lanes.
One other legislation enforcement company, which was not named, had requested the division’s assist with the cease, which concerned a murder investigation, Brooklyn Middle police mentioned.
After the cease was deemed to be underneath management, one of many three Brooklyn Middle officers confronted Wright.
The officer approached her as a result of one of many individuals subjected to the visitors cease objected to being recorded, the police division mentioned.
“As one in every of our officers was helping in detaining an individual from the high-risk cease the particular person being detained acknowledged she didn’t need to be filmed and needed the particular person filming to cease,” it mentioned in an announcement.
The officer crossed busy lanes of Freeway 252 to achieve Wright. She mentioned her wrist was injured when the officer pulled her from the car, took her cellphone from her hand and put it on the roof of her automotive.
The officer, who has not been recognized, indicated Wright can be getting some form of ticket within the mail. It was not clear from physique digicam video whether or not he specified what violations he had in thoughts.
NBC affiliate KARE of Minneapolis-St. Paul reported that one risk was a quotation for failing to adjust to an officer’s order to not cease on a freeway.
There could also be a superseding proper to watch police, nonetheless. Wright threatened to sue the division over the cease.
Wright mentioned the officer advised her she was being arrested. “As soon as I advised him who I used to be, he let me go.”
“ who I’m, proper?” she mentioned, in response to audio captured with police physique digicam video. “I’m Katie Wright. You guys killed my son, and I’m going to videotape it.”
She was referring to the visitors cease that night.
“For those who take me to jail,” she mentioned, “I’m going to sue you.”
There’s usually no proper to privateness from cameras in such a public setting, and it’s unclear why police believed that they had a task in fulfilling the want of a topic of a cease to not be recorded.
Police and different authorities companies have lengthy lobbied for extra video cameras and different surveillance instruments in public areas akin to highways.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, D.C., mentioned in a primer on photographers’ rights, “Taking pictures and video of issues which might be plainly seen in public areas is a constitutional proper.”
The ACLU of Minnesota famous that it efficiently defended a lady, Amy Jo Kooperman, who was criminally charged with interfering with legislation enforcement after she recorded police in 2018 within the Minneapolis suburb of Robbinsdale.
Kooperman sued the suburban metropolis, alleging it violated her “First and Fourth Modification rights to report and converse to police, and to not be cited with obstructing justice for exercising her constitutional rights,” the ACLU of Minnesota mentioned in an announcement final 12 months.
On Friday the civil liberties group tweeted: “Let’s make this totally clear: You’ve got the precise to report police actions so long as you don’t intervene with their actions and will not be breaking another legislation. Interval.”
The statewide union that represents rank-and-file legislation enforcement officers didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
In response to The Related Press, Brooklyn Middle police union President Chuck Valleau praised the officer who confronted Wright for what he described as a “skilled response and restraint throughout the incident.”
