Kim Potter, the former police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright, a Black man, in the U.S. state of Minnesota in 2021 was released from prison early Monday.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections said Potter was released around 4 a.m. local time from the Shakopee Correctional Facility “out of an abundance of caution” for her safety. DOC officials said they found threatening comments directed at Potter and the potential for violent protests outside the prison.”

On April 11, 2021, Potter, a 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Center Police Department, opened fire on 20-year-old Wright at a traffic stop in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center. Police pulled him over for expired license tags and an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror. Officers discovered he had an outstanding warrant for a misdemeanor weapons possession charge. He was shot during a struggle as officers tried to arrest him. Potter claimed she mistook her gun for a Taser.

Wright’s death came almost a year after George Floyd, also Black, died in police custody in Minneapolis after a police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes. Floyd’s death set off worldwide protests for racial justice. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was later convicted and sentenced to nearly 23 years in prison.

Wright’s death also sparked protests in Brooklyn Center and the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area and spread to other U.S. cities.

Potter was sentenced to a two-year term and will serve the remaining eight months in the neighboring state of Wisconsin on supervised release. The sentence, given by Hennepin County District Court Judge Regina Chu, was below state guidelines, which call for a term of between six to eight-and-a-half years for first-degree manslaughter for a defendant like Potter, who has no other criminal history.

Chu compared the case to other high-profile killings, including Floyd’s death in 2020.

At Potter’s trial, Chu said, “Officer Potter made a mistake that ended tragically. She never intended to hurt anyone.”

Potter’s two-year sentence drew strong criticism from Wright’s family and their attorney, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who led the prosecution in Potter's case, was seeking a seven-year sentence and had until May 2022 to appeal Chu's sentence. He declined, saying he accepted the decision.

Wright’s mother, Katie Wright, said after the sentencing that Potter “murdered my son.”

“Today, the justice system murdered him all over again,” she said. (VOA)

•PHOTO: In this screen grab from video, former Brooklyn Center Police Officer Kim Potter stands with her attorney as the guilty verdict for manslaughter is read, Dec. 23, 2021, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis.

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