The Rev. Al Sharpton delivered the eulogy at Daunte Wright’s funeral on Thursday.
He called the subject of his talk “no justice, no peace” in honoring the black 20-year-old after he was shot by a police officer in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 11 during an arrest.
“The absence of justice is the absence of peace,” he said. “And when we say that, we’re not talking about violence because there is a confusion in this country between peace and quiet. Some of us are told to shut up and just be quiet, and you call that peace, but peace is the presence of justice. You can’t tell us to shut up and suffer. We must speak up when there is an injustice.”
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Sharpton, a civil rights leader, said someone told him they hadn’t seen such a funeral since after the music artist Prince died.
“Well, we came to bury the prince of Brooklyn Center,” he said. “We come from all over the country because you hurt one of our princes. That’s why we’re in this temple with purple all over because it represents royalty. You thought he was just some kid with an air freshener. He was a prince. And all of Minneapolis is stopped today to honor the prince of Brooklyn Center.”
Wright was shot and killed by former officer Kimberly Potter during a traffic stop on April 11 in nearby Brooklyn Center, prompting a new wave a demonstrations and calls for police reform.
Body camera footage showed the struggle between officers and Wright as he tried to flee in his car. Potter can be heard yelling, “Taser! Taser!” before striking him once with gunfire. The Hennepin County medical examiner released its autopsy report, which said Wright, who crashed into another car several blocks away, “died of a gunshot wound of the chest and manner of death is homicide.”
Potter resigned from the force and was charged on April 14 with second-degree manslaughter in connection with Wright’s death.
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On Tuesday, less than 10 miles away in Minneapolis, former police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest in May.
“We should not think that because we won one battle with Chauvin, the war is over or that if we do not get justice for this case that we will undo what we were able to do with George Floyd,” Sharpton told the Associated Press in advance of his remarks.
