Jennifer Mayhew turned down hosptial medical treatment for the former cop in 2012, telling him her wrists were fine
A former Maryland police officer has been on trial for the manslaughter of a man whose girlfriend, a paramedic, was attempting to stop his bleeding with a belt.
Kim Potter, a former officer with the Germantown department, was arrested last year for the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright in the city’s Spencer Hill neighborhood in 2012. On Tuesday, a paramedic testified that the ex-officer’s girlfriend had attempted to stop the bleeding by wrapping a plastic belt around the victim’s body.
“She was pretty adamant that the injury was superficial. There was nothing I could do,” Jennifer Mayhew told jurors at the Montgomery county court.
Potter and her partner arrived to the crime scene shortly after officers responding to the 911 call. Wright was shot in the head on a residential street after police said he was unarmed. The investigation found Wright was waving and holding something in his hand when he was shot.
Potter later testified that she thought Wright “actively opened fire on the officers” and shot her partner in the arm as he tried to pull her into a patrol car to flee.
Potter testified that she initially ignored medical advice for her bleeding wrist but that she ultimately agreed to go to the hospital. But she said she also refused medical treatment for Wright himself.
“She [Mayhew] was pretty adamant that there was nothing I could do,” defense attorney Deirdre Beate said to Mayhew. “She felt that he didn’t need her assistance.”
A lieutenant testified that Potter was considered highly reliable and ethical. “We could rely on the standards and we did,” said Lt James Gidley. He told the jury that the investigation confirmed that the shooting was an “accident”.
Potter was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in 2015 but was released from jail on $100,000 bail. She has pleaded not guilty.