Jury is set for the trial of Kim Potter

The jury is now set for the trial of former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter. Potter faces first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in Daunte Wright’s April 11 death. Potter, who is white, is charged with the shooting of Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist, following a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center. She has said she meant to use a Taser on Wright when he pulled away from officers, but that she shot him with her handgun by mistake.

Jury selection began on Tuesday and going into Friday, only the two alternate jurors were needed. The procedings got underway at about 9 a.m. with questioning of Juror No. 57, a white woman in her 70s. After 20 minutes of questioning, she became the 13th juror (and first alternate juror) seated.

After about a half-hour delay to swear in a new panal of jurors, Juror No. 58 — a white man in his 30s came in for questioning. Like with Juror No. 57, the questioning went quickly and smoothly. He was then seated as the final juror, completing jury selection on its fourth day at 10:15 a.m.

Unless one of the first 12 jurors seated needs to be excused after the trial starts, the final two people seated Friday will hear the case but not actually decide Potter’s guilt.

The defense had one of its five peremptory challenges left to use going into Friday but opted not to use it. The state didn’t have any left, which likely contributed at least slightly to how quickly questioning on Friday proceeded.

Opening statements in the trial are still scheduled for Wednesday, despite some optimism earlier in the week that the date could be moved up.

The jury is split evenly between men and women. All of the men are white, four of the women are white, two women are Asian and one woman is Black. Five of the 14 are in their 20s or 30s, four are in their 40s, four are in their 50s or 60s and one is in her 70s. Click here to read more about the jurors.