Photos: Daunte Wright's family leads vigil, march calling for justice
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Hundreds of people joined the family of Daunte Wright on Sunday at the site where a Brooklyn Center police officer fatally shot the 20-year-old during a traffic stop three weeks before.
After prayers and a song, many in the crowd joined Wright's parents and other family members for a march to the city's police headquarters, calling for justice for Wright. Central to those calls is a push for murder charges to be filed against the now-former officer, who currently faces a manslaughter charge.
"We want this cop to be charged with the proper charges for taking Daunte's life," said Wright's aunt, Kelly Bryant.
"We're going to continue to stand at the police station, we're going to continue to have boots on the ground, we're going to let them know that we're watching," said Marcus X. Smith, who said he watched Wright and his friends grow up in his neighborhood. "We're going to let them know we're not going anywhere unless she's charged with murder. Until she's charged with the proper charges, we can't stop."
Marchers carrying signs and portraits of Daunte Wright walked from the scene of the shooting at 63rd Avenue North and Kathrene Drive, to the Brooklyn Center Police Department that still is ringed by security fencing after nights of protests last month that at times turned violent.
Former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter is facing a second-degree manslaughter charge, and the prosecutor in the case — Washington County Attorney Pete Orput — has resisted calls to file murder charges. Immediately following the shooting, authorities said Potter had intended to tase, not shoot Wright during the traffic stop.
Orput has also resisted calls to step aside, and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has so far declined to take on the case, saying he has faith in Orput.
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