Two views of the Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright earlier this year will collide in opening statements at her manslaughter trial.

The defense claims that Kim Potter made an innocent mistake by pulling her handgun instead of her Taser when she shot Wright in April as he sought to pull away from a traffic stop.

The prosecution will portray Potter as a veteran officer who had undergone extensive training that warned against such a mix-up.

Wednesday's opening statements come after it took almost a week to seat a jury that turned out to be mostly white.

The April shooting took place in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Body camera footage from the incident shows Wright attempting to flee the scene in his car after a traffic stop. Video shows that Potter repeatedly yelled "Taser!" before pulling her gun and fatally shooting Wright.

Potter is white, and Wright was Black.

The shooting sparked several days of unrest in Brooklyn Center. The incident took place as the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was getting underway just miles away.

Potter faces charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter.

Opening statements in Potter's trial will begin at 10 a.m. ET.

MINNEAPOLIS —

A mostly white jury was seated Friday for the trial of a suburban Minneapolis police officer charged in Daunte Wright's shooting death, and opening statements were scheduled to begin next week.

Kim Potter, 49, is charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11 shooting of Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist, following a traffic stop in the suburb of Brooklyn Center.

Potter, who is white, has said she meant to use her Taser on Wright after he tried to drive away from officers while they were trying to arrest him, but that she drew her handgun by mistake. Her body camera recorded the shooting.

The last two jurors, both alternates, were quickly seated Friday morning. Opening statements are scheduled for Wednesday.

Nine of the first 12 jurors seated — the ones who will deliberate if no alternates are needed — are white, with one juror identifying as Black and two as Asian. It's evenly split between men and women. The two alternates are also white.

The jury roughly matches the demographics of Hennepin County, which is about 74% white. Its makeup was closely watched, as legal experts have said that juries that are diverse by race, gender and economic background are necessary to minimize bias in the legal system.

The jury is markedly less diverse than that chosen for the trial last spring of former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin in George Floyd's death. In that case, the 12 who deliberated were split 50-50 between whites and people of color.

Ted Sampsell-Jones, a professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, said Chauvin's jury was “mostly just luck of the draw.”

He said racial and ethnic diversity matters in terms of the perceived legitimacy of the jury, but attitudes about police and policing are much more important for the case outcome.

“It might be true in general that Black people are more distrustful of police than white people, but it isn’t true as to every individual,” Sampsell-Jones said. “Lots of young white people in Hennepin County are far more progressive and anti-cop than some older Black people, for example.”

Alan Tuerkheimer, a Chicago-based jury consultant, said even a single juror of color can be enough to change the dynamics of deliberations by bringing more depth and another viewpoint to the process.

Attorneys and the judge spent considerable time probing the potential jurors for their views of protests against police brutality, which were frequent in Minneapolis even before George Floyd's death.

Questionnaires asked about attitudes toward police, including whether officers should be second-guessed, whether they should be respected and whether they are trusted.

Juror No. 11, for example, said she “somewhat agreed” that officers should not be second-guessed.

“I think sometimes you just react, and sometimes it might be a wrong reaction, but, you know, mistakes happen,” she said. “People make mistakes.”

She was seated after saying she could set that view aside and consider evidence.

Several jurors strongly disagreed that it's unreasonable to question officers' actions. Juror No. 19, the only Black person on the jury, wondered how Potter could show such a “lapse in judgment” with her experience.

“This is a servitude job, and when you get into this position, you need to understand that it’s a tough job and so you have to maintain that level of professionalism when you get into that position," she said of police officers in general.

Potter, who resigned two days after Wright's death, has told the court she will testify. Body-camera video recorded the shooting, with Potter heard saying, “Taser, Taser, Taser” before she fired, followed by, “I grabbed the wrong (expletive) gun.”

Wright was shot in Brooklyn Center as Chauvin was standing trial 10 miles away for killing Floyd. Wright's death sparked several nights of intense protests in the suburb.

The most serious charge against Potter requires prosecutors to prove recklessness; the lesser only requires them to prove culpable negligence. Minnesota's sentencing guidelines call for a sentence of just over seven years on the first-degree manslaughter count and four years on the second-degree one. Prosecutors have said they would seek a longer sentence.

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A suburban Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot a Black man during a weekend traffic stop accidentally drew her firearm instead of a stun gun, the city's police chief said Monday. Although rare, a string of similar incidents has happened in recent years across the U.S.

Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said the officer, who has not been identified, had made a mistake in firing her gun at 20-year-old Daunte Wright, who later died. Video of the shooting taken from the officer's body camera includes audio of her saying "Holy (expletive)! I shot him," after firing a single round from her handgun.

Gannon said that the officer's immediate distress showed her use of the gun was unintentional.

"As you can hear, the officer, while struggling with Mr. Wright yells 'Taser! Taser!' several times. That is part of the officer's training prior to deploying a Taser, which is a less lethal device," Gannon said. "As I watch the video and listen to the officer's commands, it is my belief that the officer had the intention to deploy their Taser, but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet."

Some questions and answers about officers who mistakenly discharge firearms when they intended to draw and deploy stun guns:

HOW FREQUENTLY DOES THIS HAPPEN?

Experts agree this is a real but very rare occurrence that probably happens less than once a year nationwide. A 2012 article published in the monthly law journal of Americans for Effective Law Enforcement documented nine cases in which officers shot suspects with handguns when they said they meant to fire stun guns dating back to 2001.

WHY DOES IT HAPPEN?

Reasons cited include officer training, the way they carry their weapons and the pressure of dangerous, chaotic situations. To avoid confusion, officers typically carry their stun guns on their weak sides — or their nondominant hand — and away from handguns that are carried on the side of their strong arms. This is the case in Brooklyn Center, where Gannon, the police chief, said officers are trained to carry a handgun on their dominant side and their stun gun on their weak side.

Bill Lewinski, an expert on police psychology and founder of the Force Science Institute in Mankato, Minnesota, has used the phrase "slip and capture" errors to describe the phenomenon. Lewinski, who has testified on behalf of police, has said officers sometimes perform the direct opposite of their intended actions under stress — their actions "slip" and are "captured" by a stronger response. He notes that officers train far more often on drawing and firing their handguns than they do on their stun guns.

Other experts express skepticism about the theory.

"There's no science behind it," said Geoffrey Alpert, a criminology professor at the University of South Carolina and an expert on police use of force. "It's a good theory, but we have no idea if it's accurate."

Alpert said a major factor in why officers mistakenly draw their firearm is that stun guns typically look and feel like a firearm. St. Paul, Minnesota, Mayor Melvin Carter brought up the same point during a news conference Monday.

"Why do we even have Tasers that operate and function and feel and deploy exactly like a firearm?" Carter asked. "Why can't we have Tasers that look and feel different? That you could never mistake for deploying a firearm so that we can ensure that mistake that has happened before can never happen again?"

WHAT ARE SOME OTHER CASES?

In one of most well-known cases, a transit officer responding to a fight at a train station in Oakland, California, killed 22-year-old Oscar Grant in 2009. The officer, Johannes Mehserle, testified at trial that, fearing Grant had a weapon, he reached for his stun gun but mistakenly pulled his .40-caliber handgun instead. Grant was shot as he lay face down. Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to two years in prison. His department paid $2.8 million to Grant's daughter and her mother.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a white volunteer sheriff's deputy, Robert Bates, accidentally fired his handgun when he meant to deploy his stun gun on an unarmed Black man, Eric Harris, who was being held down by other officers in 2015. Bates apologized for killing Harris but described his deadly mistake as a common problem in law enforcement, saying: "This has happened a number of times around the country... You must believe me, it can happen to anyone." Bates was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison. Tulsa County ultimately agreed to pay $6 million to Harris' estate to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit.

In 2019, a suburban St. Louis police officer, Julia Crews, said she meant to use her stun gun but mistakenly grabbed her service revolver and shot a suspected shoplifter, Ashley Hall, who suffered serious injuries. Crews resigned and has pleaded not guilty to a pending charge of second-degree assault. The city of Ladue admitted no wrongdoing as part of a $2 million settlement with Hall.

In an emotional press conference on Thursday, the family of Daunte Wright spoke publicly to the media, shortly before the officer who fired the fatal shot that killed Wright was scheduled to appear in court.

Joined by attorneys Ben Crump and Jeff Storms, Wright’s mother, father, sister and several aunts and uncles took to the podium at a local church to remember him.

"My brother was the most delightful person you could have met,” said Wright’s 14-year-old sister, Destiny. “His smile, his jokes. And she took that from us, and I'm very disappointed."

Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Center Police Department, is due in court Thursday, a day after she was arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter. Potter was the officer who fired the fatal shot that killed Wright during a traffic stop on Sunday; police officials said she grabbed her firearm when she meant to grab a Taser.

"It's very hard for this family to accept that this was an accident when you have a veteran of the force of 26 years," Crump said during Thursday’s press conference.

Crump said Thursday he found out about the charges against Potter while he was meeting with the mothers of other Black men who had been slain in high-profile cases in recent years: Michael Brown, Stephon Clark, Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin.

While none of the suspects involved in those killing was convicted, Crump says the quick charges against Potter mean that the “consciousness” of America has been raised.

"We're making progress in America. Are we to the point where we can say it's equality? We're a long way from that," Crump said.

Storms also called for more progress to be made in seeking justice for those killed by police.

"We shouldn't be patting ourselves on the back for baby steps toward equality," Storms said.

Family members also lamented that they will never see their son again.

"There's never going to be justice for us,” said Katie Wright, Daunte’s mother.

"He was good man. He was a good young man in the making,” said Aubrey Wright, Daunte’s father. “The way he was killed, he did not deserve that...these young Black men being killed, can you blame my son, or anyone else from being scared?"

MINNEAPOLIS —

Video above: Daunte Wright's funeral held in Minneapolis

A former suburban Minneapolis police officer charged with second-degree manslaughter for fatally shooting 20-year-old Black motorist Daunte Wright is scheduled to appear in court via videoconference Monday.

Former Brooklyn Center Officer Kim Potter, who is white, has an omnibus hearing, also known as a pretrial hearing, on Monday afternoon in Hennepin County District Court. The purpose of such a hearing is to go over evidence and determine if there's probable cause for the case to proceed.

Wright, father of a young son, was killed April 11 after a traffic stop. The former Brooklyn Center police chief has said he believes Potter meant to use her Taser on Wright instead of her handgun. Body camera video shows her shouting “Taser!” multiple times before firing. The shooting ignited days of unrest. Wright’s family members and protesters had wanted prosecutors to file murder charges.

The shooting happened amid the trial for Derek Chauvin, the white former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murder for pressing his knee against George Floyd’s neck as the Black man said he couldn’t breathe.

Police have said Wright was pulled over for expired tags, but they sought to arrest him after discovering an outstanding warrant. The warrant was for his failure to appear in court on charges that he fled from officers and had a gun without a permit during an encounter with Minneapolis police in June.

Police body camera video shows Potter approaching Wright as he stands outside of his car as another officer is arresting him. As Wright struggles with police, Potter shouts, “I’ll Tase you! I’ll Tase you! Taser! Taser! Taser!” before firing a single shot from a handgun in her right hand.

The criminal complaint noted that Potter holstered her handgun on the right side and her Taser on the left, both with their grips facing rearward. To remove the Taser — which is yellow and has a black grip — Potter would have to use her left hand, the complaint said.

Intent isn’t a necessary component of second-degree manslaughter in Minnesota. The charge — which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison — can be applied in circumstances where a person is suspected of causing a death by “culpable negligence” that creates an unreasonable risk and consciously takes chances to cause a death.

Wright family attorney Ben Crump has disputed that the shooting was accidental, arguing that an experienced officer knows the difference between a Taser and a handgun. Experts say cases of officers mistakenly firing their gun instead of a Taser are rare, usually less than once a year nationwide.

Brooklyn Center was moving toward firing Potter when she resigned shortly after the shooting. The city’s police chief also resigned, after the City Council fired the city manager.