A heart-wrenching video on Tuesday showed the families of Daunte Wright and George Floyd meeting each other to push for justice, after both men were killed in separate encounters with police in Minnesota.
The families came together following the Sunday shooting of Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, who was shot and killed by police during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing Wright’s family, held a briefing Tuesday in Minneapolis alongside the grieving relatives. Crump said Floyd’s family attended the briefing to comfort Wright’s loved ones.
“This is a bittersweet moment. It is somewhat gratifying that we have George Floyd’s family here,” Crump said at the briefing, according to ABC 7 News. “They thought that it was important to comfort Daunte Wright’s mother and father and family.”
Oh man. So many tears falling here. #GeorgeFloyd’s family meets #DaunteWright’s family for the first time. Watching this in person is a whole lot. The families pain is searing. You can feel it.
Deleted initial tweet for my crap spelling. Apologies. pic.twitter.com/DnYsNIIRlg
— Sara Sidner (@sarasidnerCNN) April 13, 2021
CNN reporter Sara Sidner shared a video of the two families meeting and described their pain as “searing.”
“Oh man. So many tears falling here. #GeorgeFloyd‘s family meets #DaunteWright‘s family for the first time. Watching this in person is a whole lot. The families pain is searing. You can feel it,” she added.
Wright was killed on Sunday after officers stopped him for a traffic violation and learned that he had an outstanding warrant. During the encounter with police, Wright reportedly attempted to re-enter his vehicle. Officer Kimberly Potter then fired her weapon, which fatally struck Wright.
Floyd, also Black, died after being detained by police over the suspected use of a counterfeit bill on May 25, 2020. In a widely circulated video of the incident, police Officer Derek Chauvin can be seen pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes, as Floyd lays on the ground repeatedly saying, “I can’t breathe.”
Chauvin is on trial in Minneapolis for Floyd’s death and has denied charges of second- and third-degree murder.
The two incidents occurred about 11 miles away from each other, and each sparked national outrage and protests against police brutality and systemic racism.
KEREM YUCEL/AFP/Getty Images
“How many more losses must we mourn? The pain of George Floyd’s shooting is still scarred into our minds and yet history continues to repeat itself because of a rotten and racist institution. For too long, law enforcement and the legal system have continued to racially profile, harass, arrest, and murder Black people more harshly than the rest of America,” Miski Noor, co-executive director for Black Visions, said in a statement to Newsweek on Monday.
Protesters on Monday gathered outside of a police station in Brooklyn Center demanding justice and chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “Justice for Daunte Wright.”
Later that night, police declared the gathering unlawful and used tear gas and flash-bang grenades to disperse the crowds. On Tuesday, officials said about 40 people had been arrested for violating curfew and rioting, the New York Times reported.
On Monday, Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said he believed Wright was shot due to an “accidental discharge,” after Potter inadvertently pulled out her gun instead of a Taser at the traffic stop. Facing growing calls for termination from the public, Potter and Gannon announced Tuesday that they had resigned from the police force.
Daunte Wright’s parents, Katie and Aubrey Wright, have since rejected the police’s narrative that the shooting was an accident.
“I can’t accept that—a mistake? That doesn’t even sound right,” Aubrey Wright told ABC News on Tuesday. “This officer has been on the force for 26 years. I can’t accept that.”
Katie Wright said Tuesday that her son left behind a 2-year-old child.
“He had a 2-year-old son that’s not going to be able to play basketball with him. He had sisters and brothers that he loved so much. He just had his whole life taken away from him. We had our hearts pulled out of our chests. He was my baby,” she told the outlet.
