City manager fired after calling for ‘due process’ in police shooting of Daunte Wright
In an emergency meeting Monday, Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott was given authority over the city's police department.
Curt Boganey, city manager of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, has been fired in the wake of the police shooting death of Daunte Wright.
At an emergency meeting Monday afternoon, the Brooklyn Center City Council voted 3-2 to give authority over the police department to Mayor Mike Elliott.
Boganey was responsible for the day-to-day government operations of the city. His termination was announced on Twitter.
“Effective immediately our city manager has been relieved of his duties, and the deputy city manager will be assuming his duties moving forward,” Elliott tweeted. “I will continue to work my hardest to ensure good leadership at all levels of our city government.”
At a press conference on Monday, Boganey said that all city employees are entitled to “due process with respect to discipline.”
Read More: Police Chief says shooting death of Daunte Wright was due to ‘accidental discharge’
“This employee will receive due process,” he said, “and that’s really all I can say today.”
That employee has since been identified as Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Center Police Department, who is claiming that she shot Wright accidentally after pulling her service weapon instead of her taser.
In the video, she is heard yelling “taser,” three times then firing a shot. She then immediately says, “Holy s**t, I just shot him,” as Wright’s car pulls away.
Read More: Officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright identified as Kim Potter
Journalists at the press conference quickly pointed out that due process was not afforded to Wright, a 20-year-old shot and killed over outstanding warrants for traffic tickets.
Calls are emerging on social media to prevent police from stopping or arresting people for low-level traffic fines.
“A traffic stop about the deadliest thing to a Black person in Minnesota,” one social media user wrote. “Why are officers so quick to shoot over a ticket? We know. And we know we don’t need police. Daunte Wright, like Philando [Castle] before him, deserves to be alive but they made the fine his life. Justice now.”
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