The woman who was in Daunte Wright’s car with him the day he was shot has recalled her desperate efforts to revive him and apologized to his mother for turning her phone on the dying youth during a frantic video-call that day.
Alayna Albrecht-Payton took the stand at the start of the second day of the trial of ex-cop Kim Potter Thursday, in testimony so emotional that the 20-year-old was at times almost unintelligible as she struggled to hold back her tears.
She told the court that she and Wright, also 20, were ‘just at the start’ of becoming boyfriend and girlfriend having only met a couple of weeks earlier over social media.
It was Albrecht-Payton who answered Wright’s mother Katie Bryant’s frantic calls, turning the camera of her phone onto Bryant’s dying son.
Today she told the court of that call saying: ‘It was his mom. She was asking what happened and I was delirious. I was screaming, ‘They shot him they shot him!’ and then I pointed the camera on him, and I’m so sorry I did that.
Daunte Wright’s girlfriend Alayna Albrecht-Payton broke down in tears as she took the stand at the start of the second day of the trial of ex-cop Kim Potter Thursday
Jurors saw bodycam footage of hysterical Albrecht-Payton immediately after Wright crashed his car after being shot
Albrecht-Payton recalled the shot being fired and the crash that followed as Wright struck another vehicle after driving off
‘No mom should have to see her son like that on her phone on a video-call. I know how my mom felt when she couldn’t find me for hours after.
‘I just know that I hurt her by doing that and I apologize, Katie.’
Wright was shot dead in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 11 after he and Albrecht-Payton were pulled over for his expired license plate tags.
A struggled ensued when Potter and her trainee officer tried to arrest Wright after learning he had an outstanding warrant against him, and he jumped back into his car in an apparent attempt to flee.
After Potter aimed her gun at Wright and fired, he managed to drive several blocks before coming to a stop when he hit another car. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Albrecht-Payton’s memories of the prelude to the shooting were limited. But she recalled the shot being fired and the crash that followed as Wright struck another vehicle after driving off.
Albrecht-Payton sustained a broken jaw, lacerations and a concussion in the collision.
Under questioning by prosecutor Erin Eldridge, Albrecht-Payton told the court: ‘I just remember hearing the boom, the bang of the gun, then I remember looking up and seeing another white car coming towards us and I remember lifting my head and ‘boom.’
‘I remember trying to get him up. I was the only one out of everybody there who was trying to help him, and I was trying to push on his chest and call his name and he wasn’t answering me he was just gasping, just taking bursts of air.’
Jurors saw bodycam footage of a hysterical Albrecht-Payton immediately after the crash as officers cuffed her, unclear of the situation they were dealing with.
They were also shown images of her injured jaw.
Potter, a 26-year veteran in the force, claims she accidentally shot Daunte Wright (right) when she reached for her gun instead of her taser during a traffic stop over his expired plates in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota
Former Brooklyn Center cop Kim Potter, 49, sits with her legal team during day two of her trial
Officers were seen placing Albrecht-Payton in handcuffs, as they were unclear of the situation they were dealing with
Albrecht-Payton told the court that she did not know what to do in the aftermath of the shooting. All she had in her head was images of CPR she had ‘seen on the movies or on TV.’
‘I didn’t know what to do I just put my hands over his chest and tried to hold it and scream his name and have him talk to me,’ she said.
‘I kept saying, ‘Daunte say something please, just talk to me,’ and he just didn’t. I know he wanted to. I replay that image in my head daily.’
In a brief cross-examination, defense counsel Earl Gray focused in on the hours before the traffic stop.
Albrecht-Payton admitted that she and Wright had split a joint at her mother’s home that morning but said that it didn’t have ‘any disabling effects,’ on either of them.
Albrecht-Payton said she did not recall if the car engine was off or on during the entire interaction with police.
She told Gray that she could only recall that ‘his hands were never on the wheel, only his foot was on the gas.’
Eldridge and Gray repeatedly circled back on this point in both of their rebuttals. Whether or not the car engine was running is a central part of the state’s case that Potter’s behavior was reckless and in breach of Brooklyn Center Police Department’s own taser policy.
The second witness of the day gave testimony in an apparent bid by prosecutors to bolster their claims that Potter was reckless and endangered others with her use of force.
Patricia Lundgren was the 84-year-old driver of the car struck by Wright when he lost control of his car after he sped away having been shot.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank questioned Lundgren, drawing out the sequence of the crash in which her husband, who was her passenger, was injured.
What Lundgren’s testimony lacked in drama was made up for by pictures of her smashed-up Subaru which were shown to the jury.
Prosecutor Erin Eldridge questioned Albrecht-Payton about the day of Wright’s shooting
Patricia Lundgren was the 84-year-old driver of the car struck by Wright when he lost control of his car after he sped away having been shot
With its airbags inflated and doors caved in, the force with which Wright struck her car, which spun out across the road, was clear.
According to the state’s case this is exactly the sort of eventuality that Potter was trained to avoid. Brooklyn Center PD’s taser policy specifically says one should not be used on anyone ‘operating a vehicle.’
According to Lundgren her husband Kenneth’s health, which was not good before the accident, has been ‘a lot worse’ since it.
Again, Gray’s cross-examination was brief and pointed. He noted that Lundgren’s car had been ‘destroyed’ and drew from her police statement in which she had asked if the other party had insurance – a tacit reminder to jurors that Wright was driving without insurance that day.
Lundgren’s daughter, Denise Lundgren-Wells, 62, testified directly after her mother. She said that her father’s health, reasoning and memory had deteriorated significantly after the April 11 crash and that ‘things had accelerated quickly.’
The rest of the morning’s testimony focused on the crash that happened when Wright sped off from the traffic stop and smashed headlong into Lundgren’s oncoming vehicle.
The jury heard from a neighbor who heard the collision and then, in more dramatic testimony, from Officer Alan Douglas Salvosa who headed to the traffic stop, when he heard of it over his radio, only to witness the crash.
Dashcam footage of Wright’s car crashing into Lundgren’s – behind whom Salvosa was driving – was played in court along with bodycam footage of Salvosa approaching the white Buick, gun drawn, yelling at its occupants to put their hands up and lower the window.
The officer explained that at that point all he knew was that the heavily tinted car was fleeing a traffic stop, which is a felony.
The images of officers administering CPR were shown in court but not broadcast according to an earlier order from Judge Regina Chu
Jurors saw Wright, now out of his car, topless and lying on the grass by the side of the road, as multiple officers attempted to revive him
As the footage played on, jurors saw Wright, now out of his car, topless and lying on the grass by the side of the road, as multiple officers attempted to revive him.
None seemed aware of what had happened at the traffic stop moments earlier.
Jurors were later shown disturbing footage of Wright being pulled from his car, at gun point, his head lolling back as he was carried unconscious and bleeding and placed on the ground.
The images of officers administering CPR were shown in court but not broadcast according to an earlier order from Judge Regina Chu.
She has also ruled that autopsy photographs will be shown to the jury but not seen via the trial livestream.
The footage was shown as Officer Daniel Irish, of Champlin Police Department, took the stand Thursday afternoon to tell jurors how he and other officers battled in vain to save Wright.
Irish told jurors that he had checked for a pulse on Wright’s wrist and neck but found none.
Officer Daniel Irish, of Champlin Police Department, took the stand Thursday afternoon to tell jurors how he and other officers battled in vain to save Wright
He placed a chest seal over the exit wound on Wright’s side then held the young man’s chin and kept his airways clear as a fellow officer administered CPR.
Defibrillator electrodes were applied to his chest and side to determine whether there was enough of a heartbeat to respond to a shock. There was not.
Ultimately, he said, a paramedic told officers to stop and pronounced Wright dead on the scene. Irish then helped get a sheet to cover up his body.
On audio of the bodycam footage a paramedic can clearly be heard saying, ‘No pulse. Grab that sheet.’
Jurors were also shown several still images.
The pictures were not broadcast and were shown to the court despite the defense’s objections.
They included a picture of Wright slumped at the wheel of his car, an image of officers attempting to save his life and one of a paramedic checking for a pulse.
Potter, 49, claims she shot Wright ‘by accident’ when she reached for her gun instead of her taser during a traffic stop. Her defense in the high-profile trial is expected to lean heavily on the fact that Wright was attempting to flee when she fired.
During the trial’s opening statements Wednesday morning, Eldridge told jurors that Potter betrayed her badge, her oath, and Wright when she drew her Glock 9 mm and shot him in the chest at point blank range.
Prosecutors argued that Potter betrayed her badge and oath by using her weapon ‘rashly or recklessly’ on the day of the botched traffic stop
The jury was shown body cam and dash cam footage of the dramatic moment Potter shot Wright dead after ‘accidentally’ pulling out her gun instead of her taser
Dash cam footage showed the struggle that broke out between the officers and Wright, who was still sitting inside his car
She also reminded the jury that Potter put on her duty belt every day with her gun on the right and her taser on the left.
In fact, Eldridge said, she had completed further training on her Taser 7 on March 2. Yet a little over one month later she shot Wright, claiming to have mistakenly used the wrong weapon.
Potter is expected to testify during the trial
But when addressing the court in his opening statements, defense attorney Paul Engh, said all Daunte Wright needed to do was ‘surrender’ and he would be alive today.
Where the prosecution had painted Potter as ‘reckless and rash’ Engh argued that Potter ‘had to do what she had to do so save the life of a fellow officer.’
Officer Anthony Luckey the cop Potter was training that fateful day, testified against her.
Luckey, 31, who has been a police officer for three years joined Brooklyn Center Police Department in February just two months before the shooting.
The officer said that a taser is always worn on the opposite side from a duty firearm, ‘so that way officers do not get their firearms confused with their tasers.’
Luckey said it was his decision to stop Wright after seeing him indicate right in the left turn lane before turning left and seeing an air-freshener hanging from the rear-view mirror.
Bodycam and dashcam footage played in court backed up the story that Luckey told of an initially calm traffic stop that devolved into chaos.
Potter is heard screaming hysterically, ‘Oh s***. I shot him!’ before collapsing with her head in hands on the sidewalk
Anthony Luckey, Kim Potter’s trainee and witness to the shooting of Daunte Wright testifies on the first day of trial
In this image provided by the prosecution shows the difference between a Taser and a Glock
Under questioning he revealed how Wright had pulled his arm away as he tried to cuff him then tried to get back into his car.
The officer was struggling to regain control and get Wright out of the vehicle and still had hands on him when he heard Potter shout, ‘I’m going to tase you,’ twice.
Amid some confusion, Luckey said, he heard her shout ‘Taser! Taser! Taser!’ – a warning supposed to give officers time to move away before a taser is deployed. But almost immediately he saw a flash and smoke and heard the bang of Potter’s gun.
He was so close to Potter when the shot was fired that the casing hit him in the face as it discharged. He said he still had hands on Wright when the bullet hit.
The proximity of the other officers and Wright’s passenger when the shot was fired is key to the state’s contention that Potter used her weapon, ‘recklessly.’
As Wright drove off Luckey said that Potter ‘immediately became hysterical’ and ‘stated that she had shot him.’
Footage of the shooting and its aftermath, shown during opening statements, was played extensively during Luckey’s testimony.
Again and again the court watched Potter shoot Wright then collapse to the ground, as he drove off. Again and again they heard her scream ‘I shot him! I grabbed the wrong f***ing gun! I shot him! Oh my God!’
A fellow cop is pictured on bodycam consoling Potter after she shot and killed Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota
The jury was shown harrowing video of Wright’s distraught mother arriving on the scene following a Facetime call in which she had seen her apparently lifeless son in his car
They listened as she wept and wailed and collapsed on the grass verge at the side of the road with her hands covering her face while her colleagues attempted to calm her.
Potter, a police officer for 26 years before she resigned five days after the shooting, has been charged on two counts; first-degree manslaughter predicated on reckless use/handling of a firearm and second-degree manslaughter.
With no criminal history, she is unlikely to receive the maximum sentence on either count should she be convicted. The maximum penalty for first degree manslaughter in Minnesota is 15 years but sentencing guidelines of 7-10 years mean she could be looking at less than half of that time behind bars.
But the prosecution has made it known that they intend to press for an upward departure from these sentencing guidelines and more prison time.