Daunte Wright is laid to rest amid national reckoning on race and police violence

Daunte Wright, the young black man shot by police during a traffic stop in suburban Minneapolis, was remembered yesterday at an emotional funeral ceremony.

It came just two days after former police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted in the death of George Floyd and amid a national reckoning on racism and policing.

Hundreds of mourners wearing Covid-19 masks packed into Shiloh Temple International Ministries to remember Wright, a 20-year-old father of one who was shot by a police officer on April 11 in the small city of Brooklyn Centre.

“The roles should be completely reversed. My son should be burying me,” Mr Wright’s mother, Katie Wright, said before burying her hands in her face in her hands.

Mr Wright's father, Aubrey, briefly took the microphone.

When he passed it back, Katie Wright recalled her son becoming a father to a boy born prematurely: “He was so happy and so proud, and he said he couldn’t wait to make his son proud. Junior was the joy of his life. He lived for him every single day.”

Earlier, Ben Crump, attorney for both the Floyd and Wright families, asked attendees to stand and repeat the proclamation, “Daunte Wright’s life mattered.” Many raised fists.

Mr Crump has called for more serious charges against Kim Potter, the white officer who is charged with manslaughter in Wright’s death.

Ms Potter’s chief said he believed the officer, who has since resigned, meant to pull her Taser. But Ms Potter should not have pulled any weapon, Mr Crump said.

“It’s too often the traffic stops end up as deadly sentences, a death sentence.

"We’re going to have to make sure that Daunte Jr know that we stood up for Daunte, his father.”

The Rev Al Sharpton, the civil rights leader delivered the eulogy, saying the police “thought [Wright] was just some kid with air freshener. He was a prince!” He said mourners came “from all over the country because you hurt one of our princes”.

The families of several other black people killed by police attended Mr Wright’s funeral, including the mothers of Philando Castile, who died after being shot by a police officer during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb in 2016, and Eric Garner, who was filmed saying “I can’t breathe” in a fatal 2014 encounter with New York City police.