Curt Boganey, the former City Manager of Brooklyn Center, doubled down on his prior comments that due process is required after the killing of Daunte Wright on Sunday by a police officer, even though the comments cost him his job, as reported by the Daily Caller.
In a statement to the press, Boganey said “I lost my job, but I still have my integrity.” Boganey’s statement came after he declined an invitation to appear on Tucker Carlson’s primetime show on Fox News on Tuesday, saying that he was hesitant to do any interviews so soon after his firing.
At a press conference in Brooklyn Center on Monday, Boganey correctly pointed out that “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 I can say today.”
After a reporter asked Boganey for his personal thoughts on the case, he responded that “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.”
Following his comments, the Brooklyn Center City Council held an emergency meeting to vote on removing Boganey from his position after he refused to immediately fire Kim Potter, the officer who ultimately killed Wright. After voting to fire him, the city council also passed a measure to hand control of the police department directly over to Mayor Mike Elliott. One member of the council, Kris Lawrence-Anderson, even admitted that she personally felt Boganey had been “doing a great job” as City Manager, but voted to remove him because she “didn’t want repercussions at a personal level” for keeping him in his position.
On Sunday, 20-year-old Wright was pulled over in a traffic stop after officers found that he was driving with an expired license plate. They then discovered an outstanding warrant for his arrest after an aggravated robbery and subsequent violation of his release conditions, and attempted to arrest him. Wright resisted and got back into his car in an attempt to flee, with Officer Potter drawing her firearm after mistaking it for her taser; she then shot Wright in the chest and killed him.
Both Officer Potter and Police Chief Tim Gannon announced their resignations on Tuesday. Riots have broken out in the city and neighboring communities every night since Sunday, which have led to violent attacks on police officers and the destruction of local businesses.