Daunte Wright’s girlfriend testifies about his death: ‘I didn’t know what to do’
Daunte Wright’s girlfriend testified through tears Thursday that she frantically tried to help him as she sat in a car next to him after he was shot and killed by an ex-Minnesota cop.
“I grabbed like whatever was in the car,” Alayna Albrecht-Payton said during the manslaughter trial of former cop Kim Potter.
“I don’t remember if it was a sweater or a towel,” Payton said, fighting through tears. “I just grabbed whatever it was and put it on his chest.
“I didn’t know what to do, so I just put my hands over his chest and I just tried to hold it and just started to scream his name,” she said. “I was just trying to have him talk to me and just kept saying, Daunte, like, Daunte, can you say something, please. Talk to me.”
Potter, 49, shot Wright during a botched traffic stop, claiming she thought she had grabbed her Taser when she had actually pulled her Glock 9mm service weapon — and shot him once in the chest.
The Brooklyn Center, Minn., cop faces first- and second-degree manslaughter charges.
“I remember hearing the boom, the bang of the gun,” Payton testified.
Wright, mortally wounded, sped off and crashed down the block, leaving Payton with a broken jaw and other injuries, she said.
Bodycam footage from Wright’s April 11 shooting death showed Payton seeming to hyperventilate and in shock as police handcuffed her after Wright crashed the vehicle after Potter shot him in the chest.
Payton, 20, also apologized to Wright’s mother for showing her her son’s body when she reached out on FaceTime right after the crash.
Additional footage shown to the jury Thursday captured the confusion at the scene, with some responding officers unclear of the situation and cops not even checking on Wright for several minutes.
Brooklyn Center Police Officer Alan Douglas Salvosa, whose dashcam caught Wright’s car slamming into another vehicle after the shooting, is seen on his bodycam pointing his gun at Wright’s car.
“I was yelling at the car, telling them to put their hands up,” he testified.
Salvosa said he was unaware at the time it was an officer-involved shooting, and repeatedly ordered Payton out of the car at gunpoint.
“I can’t,” she’s finally heard responding.
As cops get her out and check the car, one cop is heard saying, “he’s not breathing,” referring to Wright.
“We’ll deal with that when we deal with it, another officer replies.
Potter, a 26-year veteran of the police force, had never fired her gun or her Taser during her career, defense lawyer Paul Engh said during opening statements Wednesday.
On Thursday, Payton said during cross-examination that she had known Wright for about three weeks before the incident, and was in the passenger seat at the time.
She conceded that the pair had smoked marijuana that morning, but said it did not impair Wright’s conduct. She said he repeatedly asked the police why he was stopped.
“He was really scared like I never seen him like that before,” Payton said. “He’s just really happy, he’s positive … He was just so nervous and flustered. I could tell he was scared.”
Police Officer Anthony Luckey testified Wednesday that he pulled over Wright’s car for a traffic infraction, and later determined Wright did not have a license and was sought on a misdemeanor gun case.
Bodycam and dashcam video played in court showed that Wright pulled back when cops tried to handcuff him and got back behind the wheel before he was shot.
“Oh s–t! I just shot him,” Potter is heard screaming. “I grabbed the wrong f—ing gun! I shot him.”
The veteran cop is seen collapsing on the curb, wailing, “Oh my God!”
The trial is being held in Hennepin County Court, the same courthouse where ex-Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin was convicted in the death of George Floyd.
