Minnesota Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action Respond to Police Shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black Man in Minneapolis Suburb

The Minnesota chapter of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety’s grassroots networks, released the following statement on the police shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, in a Minneapolis suburb. According to the New York Times, a Brooklyn Center Police officer pulled Wright over and shot him as he was getting back into his car. The shooting comes 11 days into the trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer who killed George Floyd and occurred less than 10 miles away from the courtroom. 

“Daunte Wright should be alive today. Our hearts are with Daunte’s family, the entire Minneapolis community, and everyone impacted by the news of yet another Black man taken at the hands of law enforcement — and all while reliving the horror of George Floyd’s death as we watch the trial of Derek Chauvin,” said Jessica DeWeerth, volunteer with the Minnesota chapter of Moms Demand Action. “We stand with our partners and the community as they call for justice in Daunte’s shooting, and fight for the long overdue changes to policing we desperately need to put a stop to police violence.”  

Research suggests that implementing specific use-of-force policies can save lives. One 2016 study of 91 large police departments found that the adoption of use-of-force reform policies—exhaustion of other means prior to shooting, bans on chokeholds and strangleholds, use-of-force continuum, de-escalation, duty to intervene, restrictions on police shootings at moving vehicles, and warning before shooting—was associated with fewer people killed by police.

Black residents make up less than 20 percent of the population in both Minneapolis and in St. Paul, but are disproportionately impacted by police use of force. Between 2008 and 2020, Black people were the subject of 63 percent of officer-involved shootings and 62 percent of police use of force incidents in Minneapolis. And in St. Paul, Black people were the subjects of over half of the use of force incidents between 2016 and 2019. In an average year, police shoot and kill 11 people in Minnesota. 

Black people in the United States are nearly three times more likely to be shot and killed by law enforcement than their white counterparts, and data from Mapping Police Violence shows that most people killed by police are killed with guns. Additionally, 99% of fatal shootings by the police from 2013-2019 did not result in officers being charged with a crime.