The 18-year veteran Minnesota city manager fired for telling a reporter the cop who fatally shot Daunte Wright was "entitled to due process" said Tuesday night he still has "my integrity."
Brooklyn Center City Manager Curt Boganey, who had served in the position since 2003, was fired by the City Council on Monday, just hours after he made the seemingly innocuous remark during a news conference called to share information about Sunday's shooting.
Wright's death has again inflamed tensions in an area of Minnesota still reeling from George Floyd's death nearby only 10 months ago. Protests and riots have engulfed the city the past several nights as activists and agitators descended on Brooklyn Center.
During a news conference on Monday at which bodycam footage from the shooting was played, Boganey answered a reporter's question about the job status of the officer involved by saying: "All employees working for the city of Brooklyn Center are entitled to due process with respect to discipline. This employee will receive due process and that’s all that I can say today."
He was then asked about his personal feelings toward the case, which involves a white officer shooting a black man, and Boganey, who is black, replied: "If I were to answer that question, I'd be contradicting what I said a moment ago — which is to say that all employees are entitled to due process and after that due process, discipline will be determined. If I were to say anything else, I would actually be contradicting the idea of due process."
Shortly after those comments, the council reportedly decided to dismiss Boganey, according to the Daily Caller. The council also turned over command of the police department to the city's mayor, Mike Elliott, who said Tuesday that he doesn't "believe that officers need to necessarily have weapons every time they're making a traffic stop."
Following the meeting, City Council member Kris Lawrence-Anderson said that Boganey was “doing a great job." But she said she didn't vote to retain him because she was worried about “repercussions at a personal level” from angry protesters.
"I lost my job, but I still have my integrity," Boganey said in a statement to Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight." Producers reportedly asked him to appear on the program, but he declined and issued the statement instead.
Wright was pulled over Sunday afternoon for a traffic infraction by Brooklyn Center police officer Kimberly Potter, a 26-year-veteran, and another officer.
After running his information through their computer, the cops learned there was an outstanding warrant for Wright's arrest on a charge of first degree aggravated assault. As the officers tried to place handcuffs on Wright, he resisted. Bodycam video shows Potter yelling "Taser" before firing a weapon that she says she believed to be her Taser. It was her service weapon, however, and when she fired it, she fatally shot Wright, who managed to drive a short distance before crashing into another vehicle. He could not be revived.
Potter resigned from the police department soon after and was charged Wednesday afternoon with second-degree manslaughter.
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