'Sorry It Happened': Ex-Officer Kim Potter Breaks Down In Court

MINNEAPOLIS — Former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter gave an emotional testimony in her manslaughter case Friday over the shooting death of Daunte Wright, at one point crying out that she was "sorry it happened" as she was being questioned by the state.

After her testimony, the defense rest its case and the state prosecution team declined to call on any rebuttal witnesses.

The state and defense will both provide their closing statements Monday, after which the jury will be given instructions and sent into deliberations.

Potter faces first and second-degree manslaughter charges in the fatal April 11 shooting of 20-year-old Wright during a traffic stop.

In court Friday, Potter said she would not have pulled over Wright's white Buick if she was driving the squad car on April 11. As it happened, field officer Anthony Lucky — who was being trained that day by Potter — was driving.

According to Potter, Lucky decided to pull Wright over for expired license plate tags and an air freshener hanging from his mirror.

While on the side of the road and outside of Wright's Buick, Potter and Lucky told Wright that he had a warrant and was being arrested. Potter watched as Lucky tried to handcuff Wright, who tensed up.

"We were trying to keep him from driving away. It just went chaotic," Potter, crying, told her defense attorney while on the stand. "I remember yelling Taser Taser Taser and nothing happened and then he told me I shot him."

Potter cried again while state prosecutor Erin Eldridge played moments of Potter's graphic body camera footage during cross-examination and grilled her actions. The full video shows how Potter apparently mistook her gun for a Taser, and fired a deadly shot into Wright.

"You knew that deadly force was unreasonable," Eldridge said. "I didn't want to hurt anybody," Potter cried.

"You know the difference between left and right, don't you?" Eldridge asked, before ending her cross-examination.

Potter resigned the day after the shooting. She and her husband sold their home in the northwest metro, and they no longer live in Minnesota.

Also read: Who Is Erin Eldridge, Prosecuting Attorney In Kim Potter Trial

Reporting from the Associated Press was used in this story