Protesters demand independent investigation into Daunte Wright's death

Protesters outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department on Tuesday evening called for an independent investigation into Daunte Wright's death, rebuffing one from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Activist and attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong told the crowd that she recently spoke to Gov. Tim Walz about introducing nine bills to the Minnesota Legislature.

"Ending qualified immunity is an example...to stop killing people on the taxpayer's dollars...We want an independent body to investigate police killings and not the BCA," she said.

More than 500 protesters were outside the station, which is surrounded by a metal fence. Dozens of National Guard members were guarding the building.

Since Sunday, hundreds of protesters, reeling from news of Wright's killing, have gathered outside the station house in a show of solidarity against police violence toward Black people.

Brooklyn Center police officer Kimberly Potter fatally shot Wright during a traffic stop Sunday. In response to protesters calling for justice, Potter and Police Chief Tim Gannon resigned Tuesday.

"Because you all showed up Kim Potter doesn't have a job anymore," activist Toussaint Morrison told the crowd. "Kim Potter was a police officer longer than Daunte was alive... You can't tell me that was an accident."

On Sunday evening, as word traveled through social media about Wright's shooting during a traffic stop, a large crowd amassed on the station lawn, shouting obscenities at officers and demanding justice for Wright. Police pushed the crowd across the street, defending their headquarters with plastic projectiles, flash-bang grenades and plumes of riot gas visible for miles in the sky over the suburban city.

Looting was reported in Brooklyn Center and parts of Minneapolis on Sunday and Monday night. On Tuesday, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Brooklyn Center and a handful of other suburbs once again implemented curfews. Brooklyn Center's curfew will begin at 10 p.m. and lift at 6 a.m. Wednesday.

On Monday, Brooklyn Center police officials released body-camera video showing Potter grabbing her sidearm and shooting Wright as he appeared to try to flee in his car during the stop. Gannon said he believed Potter had meant to use her Taser but had mistakenly fired her service weapon instead, an explanation that inflamed the already-incensed community, and they gathered again at the police station Monday.

"Will my brother be next?" read a sign around the neck of Taylor Larsen, 21, who lives down the street from the station.

With time to prepare, police erected a metal fence around the perimeter of the station Monday. Shortly after the 7 p.m. curfew took effect, officers marched in formation around the protesters. The crowd met them in the street, with some throwing water bottles at the officers.

Police responded with more gas, flash-bangs and projectiles, and eventually moved the crowd down the street, away from the station. Minnesota State Patrol Col. Matt Langer said that 40 people were arrested.

kim.hyatt@startribune.com • 612-673-4751

andy.mannix@startribune.com • 612-673-4036 liz.sawyer@startribune.com • 612-673-4686