Name: Video: Kimberly Potter trial: 12th juror seated, 2 to go
Description: Prosecutors, defense attorneys and a Hennepin County judge pushed ahead Thursday on jury selection in the trial of the former Brooklyn Center police officer charged in the Daunte Wright killing. A full jury should be set by the end of Friday.

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Prosecutors, defense attorneys and Hennepin County Judge Regina Chu pressed ahead Thursday on the work to pick a jury of 12 and two alternates in the trial of Kimberly Potter, the former Brooklyn Center police officer charged in 

Twelve jurors have now been selected among the pool of roughly 250 people who’d 

 probing their views on race, police and crime. 

The twelfth juror, picked late afternoon on Thursday, said he was a gun owner who served in the Navy and had been stunned with a stun gun as part of military training. He said he worked in technology safety. His wife and child were carjacked last year but he said that wouldn’t affect his ability to weigh evidence in Potter’s trial.

Thursday started more slowly than previous days of jury selection. Three potential jurors in a row were dismissed. One was a teacher who said that Wright “looks like a lot of students I teach.” Another, who said she’d carried signs during protests in support of Wright, had a family vacation planned. 

8 key questions, answered

Chu has penciled in Dec. 8 for the start of opening statements in the trial, which is expected to end by Dec. 24, Christmas Eve.

first-degree and second-degree manslaughter

 in the killing of Wright as Brooklyn Center police attempted to take him into custody during a traffic stop on April 11. Prosecutors are expected to argue Potter’s actions were especially reckless given her extensive Taser training months before the incident.

Potter's defense is expected to argue she meant to fire her Taser to subdue Wright, 20, but accidentally drew her service weapon and shot the man once in the chest, killing him. She has pleaded not guilty and is expected to testify in her defense during the trial.

Wright’s killing set off days of protests and property destruction in the Twin Cities suburb, with demonstrators saying Wright’s killing was an example of racial bias by police against Black people.

The prosecution is not characterizing Wright's killing as racially motivated. But civil rights advocates have pointed to a long history of officers not being held accountable when they kill unarmed Black people. Potter is white. Wright was Black.

Thursday held an extra bit of drama — Potter defense attorney Earl Gray apologized to a juror. 

Gray on Tuesday had twice used the last names of two potential jurors during questioning and asked questions of one juror about his life that made it easy to discover his name.

That juror on Thursday told the court he didn’t realize jury selection was being livestreamed. While the jurors’ faces are not being shown in the broadcast, the juror said he was very troubled about his identity being easy to deduce. 

Chu had ordered juror names to be kept confidential by the court during the trial. She warned the defense not to mention identifying information of potential jurors. 

Gray on Thursday apologized to the juror and the court. "I'm the culprit who started the whole thing and I apologize,” Gray said, according to 

; the juror accepted the apology and said he would not hold the incident against Potter. 

While the trial is being livestreamed, the court is protecting the identities of the jurors. The court provides limited demographic information. Of the 12 jurors selected, nine people are white;  two are of Asian descent and one person is Black. There are six men and six women.

Here’s a brief look at some of their responses. 

The tenth juror, chosen earlier Thursday, said he’d been in a high school police explorer group and once thought about pursuing a career in law enforcement but changed course because "I was afraid I'd have to use my gun.”

The eleventh juror is a woman with an information technology background and two small children. She said she’d attended a past protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement related to children in cages at the border. 

On her questionnaire, she'd written "Daunte should not have died" for expired tabs, a reference to the police explanation of why they’d stopped Wright in April.

Daunte Wright's family thanks supporters

Reporter Jon Collins takes us inside the coverage of the Potter trial

 Kimberly Potter shot Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in April. His killing set off days of protests and unrest in Brooklyn Center, with demonstrators saying Wright’s killing was an example of racial bias by police against Black people.

 The former officer is charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter. 

Crime, Law and Justice

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The killing of Daunte Wright

Nina Moini

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Jon Collins

Matt Sepic

Prosecutors, defense attorneys and a Hennepin County judge pushed ahead Thursday on jury selection in the trial of the former Brooklyn Center police officer charged in the Daunte Wright killing. A full jury should be set by the end of Friday. 

Kimberly Potter trial: 12th juror seated, 2 to go

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