Katie Wright, the mother of Daunte Wright, who was fatally shot by an officer, was accosted by a Minneapolis police officer after she stopped her vehicle on the side of the highway to record officers during a traffic stop, NBC News reports.
On Wednesday, three Brooklyn Center officers were at the scene and ordered Katie to keep moving. Katie stopped her sedan in the direction of northbound traffic, on the shoulder of the center median.
At the time, officers were conducting “a high-risk stop.”
One of the officers approached Katie and told her that the people being questioned during the traffic stop objected to being recorded, officials said.
“As one of our officers was assisting in detaining a person from the high-risk stop the person being detained stated she did not want to be filmed and wanted the person filming to stop,” a statement read.
Katie alleges that her wrist was injured when one of the officers grabbed her from her vehicle and took her phone away, placing it on the roof of the car.
The unidentified officer allegedly threatened Katie with a citation in the mail. She later retorted if she was arrested that she would sue the department.
“Once I told him who I was, he let me go,” Katie said.
Brooklyn Center police union President Chuck Valleau lauded the officer for his “professional response and restraint” during the recent incident.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, D.C., said “taking photographs and video of things that are plainly visible in public spaces is a constitutional right.”
On Friday, ACLU of Minnesota reiterated this stance, tweeting: “Let’s make this absolutely clear: You have the right to record police actions as long as you do not interfere with their activities and are not breaking any other law. Period.”
On Thursday, Katie held a press conference and explained she was doing her civic duty to ensure the people stopped by the police officers would not lose their lives like her son.
“I pulled over to the shoulder, stopped to record to make sure that those babies — it was two young kids; they had to have been in their 20s — to make sure they got home safe because we know we have a police problem in Minnesota,” Katie said, according to NBC News.
“All I was doing was my civic duty to pull over and make sure that those babies got home safe to their families, because I don’t want what happened to me to happen to any other families,” she said.
