President Joe Biden said Monday there was no justification for violence in Minneapolis after black man Daunte Wright was shot and killed by a police officer who allegedly mistook her gun for a taser.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Biden said there was 'absolutely no justification for violence' in the aftermath of Wright's Sunday death.
'Peaceful protest is understandable. And the fact is that we do know that the anger, pain and trauma that exists in the black community in that environment is real, serious and consequential,' Biden said. 'But that does not justify violence.'
President Joe Biden said Monday that there was no justification for violence in Minneapolis after 20-year-old Daunte Wright was shot and killed by a police officer on Sunday
20-year-old Daunte Wright was shot and killed Sunday by a female police officer who the chief of police Monday said mistook her gun for a taser
A line of protesters gather outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department on Monday after the killing of Duante Wright
The comments echoed what Biden said on the campaign trail, as former President Donald Trump tried to make the election about Black Lives versus Blue Lives Matter.
The president also revealed that he had watched the 'fairly graphic' body camera footage of Wright being shot.
'The question is whether it was an accident or intentional? That remains to be determined,' Biden said.
The president said he hadn't spoken to members of Wright's family yet.
'We should listen to Daunte's mom, who is calling for peace and calm,' Biden said.
Protesters and law enforcement clashed Sunday night, with the state calling up the National Guard.
When asked if he expected the country to be on 'razor's edge' over this latest killing of a black man by a police officer, the president said he wasn't going to speculate now.
'I'm hopeful that there will be an outcome that will be supported by the vast majority of people in the region and that is my expectation,' Biden said.
Federal resources were already going to the area in anticipation of the end of Derek Chauvin's trial.
Chauvin is on trial for the Memorial Day 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which reignited the mass Black Lives Matter demonstrations last summer.
On Monday, the police chief for Minneapolis' Brooklyn Center, the suburb where the shooting occurred, explained that a senior female police officer seemingly pulled out her gun instead of her taser, killing 20-year-old Wright.
The cop was later identified as Kimberly Potter, a 25-year veteran of the force.
'This was an accidental discharge that resulted in a tragic death of Mr Wright,' said Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon.
However Wright's aunt, Naisha Wright, called for Potter to be jailed for 'not knowing the difference between a fully loaded pistol and a Taser.'
She told CNN: 'Accident? An accident? No, come on now! I own a 20,000 volt Taser. They don't feel nothing like a gun.' She said, of Potter and her police colleagues: 'My family's blood is on their hands.
Police had pulled Wright over for what they said were expired license plate tags; his family has denied that the tags were expired. When police ran his name, they realized he had an outstanding warrant, they said.
The warrant was for a misdemeanor charge of carrying a pistol without permit and misdemeanor fleeing police, NBC Minneapolis reported. His aunt has said the warrant was for 'just some weed.'
When cops asked Wright to get out of the car, he did, but then got back into the car and tried to flee; that's when Potter shot him. He was able to drive away for a time, until he crashed. Wright, who had a one-year-old son, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police body cam footage of the fatal incident showed three officers approaching Daunte Wright's car in Brooklyn Center on Sunday after he had been pulled over for the traffic stop
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