Daunte Wright protests

Protests and civil disorder occurred in reaction to the killing of Daunte Wright on April 11, 2021. Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by police officer Kimberly Potter during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, United States. Protests that first began in Brooklyn Center spread to other locations in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area and then to other cities in the United States. Several nights of civil disorder in Brooklyn Center and adjacent cities resulted in sporadic looting and damage to a few hundred properties, including four businesses that were set on fire.

Wright's death came during a prolonged period of unrest in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area over police brutality and racial injustice, notably due to the murder of George Floyd and the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who murdered Floyd. Protesters demanded justice for Wright's death and made several demands of public officials, including a more severe murder charge for Potter, an independent investigation of the shooting, and enactment of police reform measures.

In mid April 2021, many local protests were held outside the Brooklyn Center police station on Humboldt Avenue. Law enforcement established a heavily fortified barrier area and periodically clashed with demonstrators over several days. Demonstrators made several attempts to overrun the security barrier established around the police station during a few nights of tense protests. Law enforcement fired tear gas and less-lethal munitions into the crowds. Protesters later demanded that criminal charges be dropped against demonstrators over Wright's death, and that law enforcement discontinue aggressive crowd control methods. In three separate incidents, law enforcement and Minnesota National Guard troops had gunshots fired at them during civil disorder in the week after Wright's death.

Protests resumed in late 2021 during Potter's criminal trial with most demonstrations concentrated in downtown Minneapolis near a court building. A jury convicted Potter of first-degree and second-degree manslaughter charges on December 23, 2021. Protests were held as a reaction to Potter's prison sentence, which was for two years rather than the seven years requested by the state, and a few instances of looting took place in Brooklyn Center and Minneapolis.