The Rev. Al Sharpton leads wake for Daunte Wright in Minneapolis

On Katie and Aubrey Wright's wedding anniversary, they received hugs and flowers, but not in celebration of their marriage.

They gathered with loved ones at Shiloh Temple International Ministries in north Minneapolis for the wake of their 20-year-old son, Daunte Demetrius Wright, who was shot and killed by a former Brooklyn Center police officer April 11.

"For them to have to spend this evening under these circumstances, we got to give them a wedding gift: justice," said civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton.

At the wake, a slide show of images showed Wright in his youth, holding a basketball trophy and wearing an Air Jordan headband with a gold medal hanging from his neck. Images showed him smiling, surrounded by his now grieving family and friends.

Wright played center for the basketball team at Edison High School with the No. 23 jersey, his favorite number.

"He was a star athlete," according to his obituary, which described him as a "jokester" and "a warm and loving person who would do anything for his family and friends."

He loved the Fourth of July, sharing good times with his family and his son, whom he spent months with in intensive care when he was born four months prematurely in 2019.

Born in St. Paul on Oct. 27, 2000, and raised in Minneapolis from the time he was 7, Wright was "taken from his family and friends too soon and leaves a hole in their heart that will never be filled," his obituary read.

Katie Wright said she and her husband have been married two years, but together for 23. The interracial family is full of "harmony and love," and former officer Kim Potter stole that from them, Sharpton said.

"This couple has stayed together and brought their family together. And for you to rob them of their child," Sharpton said.

"They didn't raise their children to hate. ... You brought hate into their families and we will run it out and get them justice."

Potter, a 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Center Police Department, faces one charge of second-degree manslaughter in the death of Wright, who was killed during a traffic stop for driving with expired tabs, according to police.

Potter, who is white, used a Glock 9-millimeter handgun to shoot Wright in apparent confusion after saying in the moments before shooting that she planned to use her Taser, police said. Potter resigned two days later.

Sharpton said when Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all three counts for the murder of George Floyd, he couldn't help but think about what happened in Brooklyn Center.

"People celebrated all over the country," he said, "As I was crying, the thing that bothered me was right down the road was Daunte Wright. … Don't tell us what you did for George Floyd and ignore what happened to Daunte Wright. … We're going to get Wright right in Minnesota."

Attorney Ben Crump, who represented the Floyd family, is also representing the Wright family.

"Even though he was the birth child of Aubrey and Katie Wright, he became a child of America," Crump said. "People all over America saw their child in Daunte."

Wright's funeral is scheduled for noon Thursday at Shiloh Temple.