Mike Elliott, the mayor of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, has been thrown into the spotlight following the police shooting of Daunte Wright.
Elliott, 36, took office in 2019, becoming the city’s first mayor of color.
He ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2014, losing to the incumbent, Tim Willson, by 145 votes. The two went up against each other four years later, and Elliott won by close to 1,000 votes, according to CCX Media.
Elliott and his family immigrated from Liberia to Minnesota when he was 11 years old. He attended Palmer Lake Elementary and Brooklyn Center Jr./Sr. High School before getting a bachelor’s degree in international management with a minor in political science from Hamline University, which is in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Prior to his career in politics, Elliott was a small-business owner and founded FastForward Education, a foundation that promotes academic success at the local school he attended, according to his campaign website.
Brooklyn Center, which has a population of about 30,000 people and is the most diverse city in the state, is only miles from where George Floyd was killed in police custody in Minneapolis.
OFFICER WHO SHOT DAUNTE WRIGHT RESIGNS, POLICE CHIEF FOLLOWS
“We are all collectively devastated, and we have been for over a year now by the killing of George Floyd and that we continue to be distressed as we go through the Derek Chauvin trial. So having a police-involved shooting happen in our community and killing a young man is heartbreaking and just unfathomable,” Elliott said at a press conference Monday.
Elliott and his town are now in the national spotlight after Wright, a 20-year-old black man, was killed in a police-involved shooting during a traffic stop on Sunday.
The officer who shot and killed Wright, identified by police as Kim Potter, shot her handgun when she meant to use a Taser in what authorities dubbed an “accidental” shooting.
The Hennepin County medical examiner released its autopsy report in the case on Monday, which said that Wright, who crashed into another car several blocks away, “died of a gunshot wound of the chest and manner of death is homicide.”
Potter, a 26-year veteran of the force, resigned from the Brooklyn Center Police Department on Tuesday, and Police Chief Tim Gannon followed with his own resignation. Gannon was replaced by Tony Gruenig as acting chief.
“I have loved every minute of being a police officer and serving this community to the best of my ability, but I believe it is in the best interest of the community, the department, and my fellow officers if I resign immediately,” Potter said.
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An investigation was being led by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
The trial for Chauvin, the former officer accused of killing Floyd, is ongoing. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of third-degree murder, second-degree murder, and manslaughter charges.
Minnesota prosecutors concluded their case on Tuesday, allowing the defense team to call its first witness to the stand after 11 days of testimony.
