Brooklyn Center council gives mayor police command in wake of Daunte Wright shooting

Brooklyn Center, Minn., Mayor Mike Elliott announced on Monday that his city council has passed a motion to give his office police department command in the wake of growing unrest over the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright.

“Moments ago the council passed a motion 3-2 to give command authority over our Police Department to my office,” Elliott wrote in a tweet.

“At such a tough time, this will streamline things and establish a chain of command and leadership,” he added.

Moments ago the council passed a motion 3-2 to give command authority over our Police Department to my office. At such a tough time, this will streamline things and establish a chain of command and leadership. I appreciate the other councilmembers who voted to approve this motion pic.twitter.com/qa1cWMurkI

— Mayor Mike Elliott (@mayor_elliott) April 12, 2021

Elliott also announced that Brooklyn Center City Manager Curt Boganey had been fired effective immediately.

Effective immediately our city manager has been relieved of his duties, and the deputy city manager will be assuming his duties moving forward. I will continue to work my hardest to ensure good leadership at all levels of our city government.

— Mayor Mike Elliott (@mayor_elliott) April 12, 2021

Earlier in the day, police released body camera footage of a Brooklyn Center officer fatally shooting 20-year-old Wright, a Black man, at a traffic stop.

Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said that the officer who shot Wright meant to deploy their taser, but mistakenly pulled their gun instead.

“It appeared to me, from the video, that the individual was trying to get back into his car to leave,” Gannon said. “It is my belief that the officer had the intention to deploy their Taser, but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet.”

Gannon said that he could not explicitly say what was going through the officer’s head, but that it appeared as though it was an “accidental discharge,” based on his experience and training.

The body camera footage shows three officers approaching Wright’s car after pulling him over for expired license tags. Authorities said that after obtaining Wright’s ID, officers realized that there was an outstanding warrant out for his arrest.

In the video, Wright can be seen trying to get back into his car when two of the officers attempt to arrest and place handcuffs on him.

An officer can then be heard shouting “tase him” multiple times after Wright gets back into his car’s driver seat. In the video, an officer points a gun at Wright as he grabs the steering wheel and shouts “S—!” and then appears to drop the handgun.

The officer then can be heard saying, “I just shot him.”

Protests over Wright’s death erupted overnight in Minnesota.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump announced on Monday that he has been retained to represent Wright’s family.

Crump also represents the family of George Floyd, who died in May after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. Chauvin’s murder trial entered its third week on Monday.

—Updated at 7:35 p.m.