On April 11, 2021, Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old black American man, was fatally shot in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, by police officer Kimberly Potter during a traffic stop and attempted arrest for an outstanding warrant.

In Brooklyn Center, the police department changed its policy on arresting people for misdemeanor offenses and city council introduced alternative public safety measures, but several proposed reforms failed to be implemented.

[23] The trainee officer also noticed that the vehicle had an expired registration tag on its license plate and had an air freshener hanging from the car's rearview mirror, a violation of Minnesota law.

[11] They learned he had an open arrest warrant for failing to appear in court on a gross misdemeanor weapons violation for carrying a gun without a permit,[26][23] and that there was a protective order against him by an unnamed woman.

[51][52][18] On the morning of April 12, Brooklyn Center police chief Tim Gannon held a press conference and played a clip of the body camera footage.

[29][62][54] The Hennepin County medical examiner's office released a report on April 12 that determined the manner of death to be homicide and concluded that Wright had died as the result of a gunshot wound of the chest.

[29] Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott called on Governor Tim Walz to reassign the case to the office of the State Attorney General Keith Ellison.

[64] The Washington County Attorney's Office charged Potter on April 14 with second-degree manslaughter, pursuant to Minnesota Statutes, section 609.205, a felony offense entailing "culpable negligence creating unreasonable risk" that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years incarceration and/or a $20,000 fine.

[68] Potter was represented by Earl Gray, a Saint Paul-based attorney who also defended Thomas Lane and Jeronimo Yanez, who were involved with the killings of George Floyd and Philando Castile, respectively.

[72] The criminal trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer who killed Floyd, was about to enter its third week when Wright was fatally shot on Sunday, April 11, 2021, in Brooklyn Center, a suburban city adjacent to Minneapolis.

Like Floyd's murder, Wright's death furthered public discussion about police training and accountability[72] and renewed focus on the Black Lives Matter movement.

[77] Officers with riot control equipment arrived, formed, a line, and moved in when demonstrators began climbing on police vehicles and throwing bricks.

[94] Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott issued several statements on social media and at press conferences beginning the evening of the incident, expressing sympathy, urging protesters to remain peaceful, and suggesting that Potter should be fired.

Governor Peggy Flanagan, and Senator Tina Smith made statements mourning Wright's death and commenting on the pattern of unarmed Black men killed by law enforcement.

"[103] Angela Rose Myers, president of the organization's Minnesota chapter, said at a press conference, “Black leaders are not playing, we are done dying in Minnesota.”[104] Referring to controversy surrounding traffic stops due to small objects dangling from rear-view mirrors,[91] the American Civil Liberties Union said it had "deep concerns that police here appear to have used dangling air fresheners as an excuse for making a pretextual stop, something police do all too often to target Black people.

She said she had overheard what sounded like a scuffle and an officer saying, "Daunte, don't run" before the phone hung up, and that her son said he had been pulled over for having an air freshener hanging from his rear-view mirror.

[74] On April 14, 2021, protesters put up a large, wooden sculpture of a raised fist at the 63rd Avenue North and Kathrene Drive intersection where the car driven by Wright collided with another vehicle.

[126] On November 9, Chu reversed her earlier ruling to ensure "meaningful access" to the trial, as the courtroom was subject to attendance restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

[50][128] Nine of the twelve jurors seated were white, similar to the demographics of Hennepin County, one was black and two were Asian, with the jury evenly split between men and women.

[140] In explaining her sentencing decision, Chu said the case was unusual, and that Potter made a "tragic mistake" of thinking that she drew her taser instead of her firearm while in a chaotic situation.

Terms of the settlement required the city to make changes to policing policies and improve office training, and to establish a permanent memorial to Wright at the site of a temporary one that emerged in the days after his death.

[150][151] As part of the prior civil settlement with Wright's family, the City of Brooklyn Center in mid 2023 commissioned a permanent, public memorial at 63rd Avenue North and Kathrene Drive at a cost of $243,000 to replace the makeshift one that emerged soon after his death.

[156] Proposed measures included creating unarmed traffic enforcement and community response teams, and prohibiting arrests or vehicle searches in certain traffic-related encounters.

[157] The city's council also passed a $1.3 million plan for alternative public safety programs, such as the use of unarmed workers to enforce nonmoving traffic violations and mental health response teams—$303,114 of the project's budget came from eliminating three police officer positions.

[158] Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliot, who was a Liberian refugee, gained widespread attention in the aftermath of Wright's death and during the response to civil unrest.

The public safety and police reform plan he put forward after Wright's death became a source of political controversy as it ultimately failed to be enacted into city law.

[160][156] In January 2024, the city council rejected a resolution that would limited situations when police officers could initiate a traffic stop, such as for expired vehicle registration and for broken or inoperable components on the car.

[161] According to the Star Tribune, by April 2021 there had been 16 known cases, including Potter's killing of Wright, when a police officer in the United States fired a pistol at someone but claimed to have intended to use a Taser instead.

[168][169] In Minnesota, Governor Tim Walz and Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter called for measures to better distinguish Tasers and firearms, as part of comprehensive police reform.

[178] Perry Bacon Jr., an opinion columnist with The Washington Post, argued in early 2023 that the protest movement of the law enforcement killings of black Americans failed to reduce such incidents and that both bold policy changes and more incremental reforms to policing had not been realized.