Daunte Wright, the 20-year-old Black man shot by a police officer in a Minneapolis suburb Sunday afternoon, had an open warrant for his arrest related to an aggravated armed-robbery case against him. Wright had allegedly choked a woman and threatened to shoot her after she refused hand over $820 that she had stuffed in her bra, court records show.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, an online speculation that Wright did not know there was a warrant out for his arrest is thus false. Wright was shot dead in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota by officer Kimberly Potter, 48, a 26-year veteran in the Brooklyn Center Police Department, leading to days of unrest.
Dark Past
Wright and another man, identified as Emajay Maurice Driver, a high school acquaintance, had both been charged with first-degree aggravated robbery in a December 2019 incident in Osseso, Minn., Hennepin County District Court documents show. Wright and Driver had crashed at the victim's home in Osseo after attending a party there.
Around 2:30 am, two women at the home told Wright and Driver that they needed to leave. The two men said that they did not have a ride, so the women reportedly allowed the Wright and Driver to spend the night, according to the court documents.
However, in the morning, Wright and Driver started demanding money and tried to rob one of the women at gunpoint, authorities said in court papers. "Give me the f**king money — I'm not playing around," Wright told the woman, according to prosecutors.
Wright then allegedly choked the woman while trying to pull the cash out from under her bra, where she had tucked it away. Court documents say that the victim was able to pry herself loose and "started to kneel down and scream." She told authorities that she allegedly heard Driver tell her to give the money to Wright, who was yelling at her to stop screaming.
Horrifying Experience
Wright, according to the court documents, was in no mood to leave and at oen point was almost about to shoot the woman. "Give me the money, and we will leave," Wright allegedly told her. "Give me the money, and we will go."
However, the two had to leave the home eventually without any money. Wright was later arrested and released on $100,000 bond. But he violated his bail conditions in July when he failed to stay in touch with his court monitor, the papers said. At that time a judge issued a warrant for his arrest, that was still outstanding on the day he died.
Lifting the Cover
Wright was shot dead by Potter, who is being charged with his death. Potter and the police department have claimed that she mistakenly grabbed her gun instead of her taser. After the gun fired, she is heard on body camera saying: "Holy s**t I shot him." Potter and Brooklyn Center police chief Tim Gannon both resigned on Tuesday.
Wright was allegedly pulled over for having expired license plate tags, although he called his mother and told her it was for having an air freshener hanging on his rear-view mirror. While checking his details, Potter and other officers learned of the warrant, and sought to arrest him but he broke away and got back in the car. The scuffle ended in a shootout, with Wright ending up dead.
Wright was due to face trial on a charge of attempted aggravated robbery - with a possible maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Following his death, many have claimed on social media that Wright may not even have known about the warrant because it was sent to the wrong address and returned to the court by the US Postal Service.
However, the letter that was sent on February 2 and returned to the court three days later was just to advise Wright of a change of date for his court hearing. In an interview with Good Morning America on Tuesday, Wright's parents Katie and Aubrey said they could not accept their son's death was a mistake. But what is being claimed and believed by many that Wright was unaware of the arrest warrant now seems not to be true.
