Potter expected on stand as trial in Wright death nears end

Kimberly Potter, the former Brooklyn Center police officer on trial in the shooting death of Daunte Wright, is expected to take the stand Friday, hoping to persuade jurors to acquit her of manslaughter charges in what she has said was a gun-Taser mixup.

A compressed defense case for Potter appeared likely to wrap up after just two days, with jurors also expected to hear from an expert on how such errors can occur.

Potter’s police chief at the time she shot and killed Daunte Wright testified Thursday at her manslaughter trial.

Tim Gannon called Potter "a fine officer" and said he "saw no violation" of policy in Potter’s actions at the scene.

Gannon told jurors he believes one of the reasons he was asked to step down from his position was because he would not immediately fire Potter after the shooting.

He said, after looking at all the data and reviewing the video from both angles, he saw no violation of policy, procedure or law.

Wednesday, we heard from the state’s use of force witness who said Potter’s use of force was unreasonable and inconsistent with "generally accepted police practices."

The defense brought its own use of force witness to the stand, who told the jury the opposite—that Potter’s use of force was reasonable.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS spoke with Fred Friedman, who spent more than four decades as a chief public defender and now teaches law at the University of Minnesota- Duluth.

Here’s what he had to say about the testimony we heard, specifically on the character witness testimony:

"Will it hurt her? No, but I think it’s going to help her either, it’s just a friend saying [something]. The other thing you also saw today is a few character witnesses. I’m not certain character witnesses matter. Every person you and I know, every person in Minnesota can get two, three, four people that say my buddy’s a great character. […] In my experience, my career, character witnesses have neither helped nor hurt."

Potter told the judge once again Thursday she plans to testify and we are expecting we could hear from her as soon as Friday.

Court begins at 9 a.m.

KSTP’s complete trial coverage

The Associated Press contributed to this report.