When Daunte Wright defied police and drove away after being shot by a Minnesota police officer, he altered the trajectory of at least one ...
When Daunte Wright defied police and drove away after being shot by a Minnesota police officer, he altered the trajectory of at least one innocent life, according to testimony presented Thursday in the trial of former officer Kim Potter.
Potter shot Wright on April 11 in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, after Wright refused to heed police instructions and tried to drive off after a traffic stop. Potter has been charged with manslaughter in the death of Wright.
On Thursday, much of the testimony concerned what took place when Wright drove off after being shot.
Denise Lundgren Wells testified that the damage her father, Kenneth Lundgren, sustained in the accident that took place when Wright’s car careened into the vehicle in which Lundgren and his wife were traveling, was a catalyst that had led to his medical decline.
Although Lundgren Wells noted that her father had a stroke about 20 years ago and had been struggling since then, his condition worsened rapidly after the crash, according to Newsweek.
“I began to notice that it was increasingly hard to understand him and he wasn’t, his sense of reasoning was, why he was doing the things he was doing wasn’t clear and his articulation seemed to be getting worse and worse and I could understand less and less of what he said,” Lundgren Wells said, according to KSTP-TV.
After the crash, her father began “kind of obsessing about dying,” she said, and even asked a friend to sing at his funeral.
“It’s been a challenging spring,” Lundgren Wells said.
She noted that her father’s balance has become worse. At one time, she said, he “became really belligerent” and needed to be strapped to his bed.
Lundgren Wells said an MRI showed her father’s brain was shrinking and he needed to be placed in hospice care.
She said her father’s decline accelerated “extremely” since the car Wright was driving plowed into his.
“That’s not my dad,” she said.
Patricia Lundgren also testified that her husband’s medical condition changed rapidly after the crash.
“He has lots of problems now,” she said.
At the end of the testimony, defense attorney Paul Engh asked Judge Regina Chu to grant a mistrial on the grounds that Thursday’s testimony had nothing to do with Potter’s guilt.
“Alright, we’re really getting ahead of ourselves now,” Chu said as she denied the motion for a mistrial.
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