Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, agreed to pay the family of Daunte Wright $3.25 million as part of a settlement over Wright’s death during a traffic stop last year.
The city agreed to pay the settlement, as well as implement reforms affecting police training and policies, the Wright family’s legal team said in a statement on Tuesday night. The settlement is not yet finalized, however, according to the Chicago law firm Romanucci & Blandin. Wright’s family is still pushing for “substantial and meaningful non-monetary relief,” including further reforms and funding for a permanent memorial to Wright, according to The Washington Post.
Wright’s family members “hope and believe the measures of change to policing, policies and training will create important improvements to the community in Daunte’s name,” co-counsel Antonio M. Romanucci said, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “Nothing can bring him back, but the family hopes his legacy is a positive one and prevents any other family from enduring the type of grief they will live with for the rest of their lives.”
Wright died during a traffic stop last year after he was shot by a Brooklyn Center police officer while resisting arrest. Former officer Kim Potter said she mistakenly shot Wright with her sidearm while attempting to tase the 20-year-old black man. Wright was stopped for driving a vehicle with an expired registration tag and for having an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror, which is illegal in Minnesota.
A jury convicted Potter of first and second-degree manslaughter in December. She was sentenced to two years in state custody in February, well under Minnesota’s recommended sentencing guidelines after the judge took into account what she said were mitigating factors.
“Nothing can explain or fill the emptiness in our lives without Daunte or our continued grief at the senseless way he died. But in his name, we will move forward, and it was important to us that his loss be used for positive change in the community, not just for a financial settlement for our family. We hope Black families, people of color, and all residents feel safer now in Brooklyn Center because of the changes the city must make to resolve our claims. It is vital to us that the city fulfill its good faith commitment to fully funding and implementing the Daunte Wright and Kobe Dimock-Heisler Community Safety and Violence Prevention Resolution,” Katie and Arbuey Wright, the parents of Daunte Wright, said in the Tuesday statement, according to Fox 9.