Daunte Wright’s Aunt Speaks at Press Conference, Pleads for Fairness: ‘He Was A Good Boy. He Was Ours.’
Naisha Wright spoke at a press conference Thursday in Minneapolis, ahead of a court hearing in the death of her nephew Daunte Wright, pleading for fairness and accountability.
“I want everybody to sit here and imagine, you having to bury your child, that somebody just murdered,” Wright said, following remarks by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who also represents the family of George Floyd. “We all know when our children are born, we’re so proud. Fathers, they want their baby boys. Us moms, we get that love from our sons.”
“They don’t get that anymore,” Wright continued, referring to Aubrey and Katie Wright, Daunte’s parents, who stood behind Naisha. “Do we get to see Daunte smile? We don’t get to see that. Do we get to hear Daunte joke again? We don’t get to hear that.”
Daunte Wright was killed on April 11, when Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter fatally shot Wright during a traffic stop. Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon has said that, based on police bodycam footage, he believes Wright’s death is “accidental,” and he believes Porter “had the intention to deploy their taser, but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet.”
The Wright family does not agree that Daunte’s death was an accident.
As she spoke, Naisha Wright demanded accountability for Daunte’s death, and said that things would be different if Daunte was white.
“If someone killed [Kim Potter’s] child, we wouldn’t even be having all this, press conference … because whoever did that would be under the jail again. Can we get that same thing?” Wright said. “I don’t care what’s said, what my nephew may have done, whatever it is. Again, he was ours. He was a good boy. He was ours.”
“We want the same conviction that anybody else of our race, or even outside of our race, what they want to call a minority, would get,” Wright added.
Potter is facing second-degree manslaughter charges in Daunte’s death. Her first hearing is set for Thursday afternoon.
