Cape Coral Yacht Club receives key permitHoly Trinity Greek Orthodox Church holds 31st annual Greek Fest
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral Yacht Club receives key permit Cape Coral received a key permit for a Yacht Club Community Park. This permit opens up the necessary steps for the park to be built.
PORT CHARLOTTE Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church holds 31st annual Greek Fest The Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church of Port Charlotte kicked off its 31st annual Greek Fest on Friday.
Donations helping young kids get fed Food insecurity is a pressing issue in the community, and organizations like the Harry Chapin Food Bank, Meals of Hope and the Guadalupe Center are stepping up to help.
New risk factors contribute to heart disease February is American Heart Month, a perfect time to assess your heart health.
PORT CHARLOTTE Port Charlotte High School student arrested for possession of BB gun According to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, a student has been arrested after a BB gun was found in his backpack on Friday.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers Regional Library to undergo multiple repairs due to Ian The Fort Myers Regional Library is preparing for essential repairs, nearly two years after Hurricane Ian made its impact.
Drug bust at Collier County home leads to triple arrest Three people are accused of running a drug house that held opioids, fentanyl and other illicit narcotics in Collier County.
Charlotte County’s first Grain & Berry opens Fast-growing organic vegan restaurant franchise Grain & Berry opened in Port Charlotte, making it the 19th in the state out of a total of 23 nationwide.
GOLDEN GATE Body found in Collier County canal prompts death investigation Collier County Sheriff’s Office is conducting a death investigation after a body was discovered in a canal.
FORT MYERS DeSantis’ new Boater Freedom Initiative would end random FWC boat safety inspections Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the new Boater Freedom Initiative will protect Sunshine State residents’ right to boat.
CAPE CORAL Couple celebrates their lifelong love on 62nd Valentine’s Day together Hollis and Linda Nash might be living proof that love doesn’t fade with age.
PUNTA GORDA CROW rescues, rehabilitates 2 orphaned baby River Otters Two orphaned baby North American River Otters were rescued by the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife.
FORT MYERS Southwest Florida Reading Festival brings bestselling authors Romance is in the air this Valentine’s Day as we look forward to the Southwest Florida Reading Festival taking place in March.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers Florist offers lower prices on roses for Valentine’s Day Valentine’s Day is the busiest day of the year for florists in Southwest Florida, and one florist is offering lower prices on roses.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral Yacht Club receives key permit Cape Coral received a key permit for a Yacht Club Community Park. This permit opens up the necessary steps for the park to be built.
PORT CHARLOTTE Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church holds 31st annual Greek Fest The Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church of Port Charlotte kicked off its 31st annual Greek Fest on Friday.
Donations helping young kids get fed Food insecurity is a pressing issue in the community, and organizations like the Harry Chapin Food Bank, Meals of Hope and the Guadalupe Center are stepping up to help.
New risk factors contribute to heart disease February is American Heart Month, a perfect time to assess your heart health.
PORT CHARLOTTE Port Charlotte High School student arrested for possession of BB gun According to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, a student has been arrested after a BB gun was found in his backpack on Friday.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers Regional Library to undergo multiple repairs due to Ian The Fort Myers Regional Library is preparing for essential repairs, nearly two years after Hurricane Ian made its impact.
Drug bust at Collier County home leads to triple arrest Three people are accused of running a drug house that held opioids, fentanyl and other illicit narcotics in Collier County.
Charlotte County’s first Grain & Berry opens Fast-growing organic vegan restaurant franchise Grain & Berry opened in Port Charlotte, making it the 19th in the state out of a total of 23 nationwide.
GOLDEN GATE Body found in Collier County canal prompts death investigation Collier County Sheriff’s Office is conducting a death investigation after a body was discovered in a canal.
FORT MYERS DeSantis’ new Boater Freedom Initiative would end random FWC boat safety inspections Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the new Boater Freedom Initiative will protect Sunshine State residents’ right to boat.
CAPE CORAL Couple celebrates their lifelong love on 62nd Valentine’s Day together Hollis and Linda Nash might be living proof that love doesn’t fade with age.
PUNTA GORDA CROW rescues, rehabilitates 2 orphaned baby River Otters Two orphaned baby North American River Otters were rescued by the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife.
FORT MYERS Southwest Florida Reading Festival brings bestselling authors Romance is in the air this Valentine’s Day as we look forward to the Southwest Florida Reading Festival taking place in March.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers Florist offers lower prices on roses for Valentine’s Day Valentine’s Day is the busiest day of the year for florists in Southwest Florida, and one florist is offering lower prices on roses.
In this screen grab from video, defense attorney Earl Gray delivers closing arguments, Monday, Dec. 20, 2021, in former Brooklyn Center police Officer Kim Potter’s trial for the April 11, 2021, death of Daunte Wright, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. (Court TV via AP, Pool) A jury will resume deliberations Tuesday in the trial of a suburban Minneapolis police officer who says she meant to use her Taser instead of her gun when she shot and killed Black motorist Daunte Wright. The jury met for about five hours Monday following closing arguments in which prosecutors accused Kim Potter of a “blunder of epic proportions” in Wright’s death in an April 11 traffic stop — but said a mistake was no defense. Potter’s attorneys countered that Wright, who was attempting to get away from officers as they sought to handcuff him for an outstanding warrant on a weapons charge, “caused the whole incident.” Potter, who is white, is charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter. If convicted of the most serious charge, Potter, 49, would face a sentence of about seven years under state guidelines, though prosecutors have said they will seek more. The mostly white jury got the case after about a week and a half of testimony about an arrest that went awry, setting off angry protests in Brooklyn Center just as nearby Minneapolis was on edge over Derek Chauvin’s trial in George Floyd’s death. Potter resigned two days after Wright’s death. Prosecutor Erin Eldridge called Wright’s death “entirely preventable. Totally avoidable.” She urged the jury not to excuse it as a mistake: “Accidents can still be crimes if they occur as a result of reckless or culpable negligence.” “She drew a deadly weapon,” Eldridge said. “She aimed it. She pointed it at Daunte Wright’s chest, and she fired.” Potter’s attorney Earl Gray argued that Wright was to blame for trying to flee from police. Potter mistakenly grabbed her gun instead of her Taser because the traffic stop “was chaos,” he said. “Daunte Wright caused his own death, unfortunately,” he said. He also argued that shooting Wright wasn’t a crime. “In the walk of life, nobody’s perfect. Everybody makes mistakes,” Gray said. “My gosh, a mistake is not a crime. It just isn’t in our freedom-loving country.” Potter testified Friday that she “didn’t want to hurt anybody” and that she was “sorry it happened.” Eldridge said the case wasn’t about whether Potter was sorry. “Of course she feels bad about what she did. … But that has no place in your deliberations,” she said. Playing Potter’s body camera video frame by frame, Eldridge sought to raise doubts about Potter’s testimony that she fired after seeing “fear” on the face of another officer, then-Sgt. Mychal Johnson, who was leaning into the car’s passenger-side door and trying to handcuff Wright. The defense has argued that Johnson was at risk of being dragged and that Potter would have been justified in using deadly force. But Eldridge pointed out that for much of the interaction Potter was behind a third officer, whom she was training, and that Johnson didn’t come into her camera’s view until after the shot was fired — and then it showed the top of his head as he backed away. “Sgt. Johnson was clearly not afraid of being dragged,” Eldridge said. “He never said he was scared. He didn’t say it then, and he didn’t testify to it in court.” Eldridge also noted that Potter put other people at risk when she fired her gun, highlighting that the third officer was so close to the shooting that a cartridge casing bounced off his face. “Members of the jury, safe handling of a firearm does not include firing it into a car with four people directly in harm’s way,” she said. Gray started his closing argument by attacking Eldridge’s summation, highlighting how she had played slowed-down depictions of events that Potter saw in real-time. “Playing the video, not at the right speed where it showed chaos, playing it as slow as possible … that’s the rabbit hole of misdirection,” Gray said. He also noted that Potter’s body camera was mounted on her chest and gave a slightly different perspective than her own vision. Judge Regina Chu told jurors that intent is not part of the charges and that the state doesn’t have to prove she tried to kill Wright. The judge said for first-degree manslaughter, prosecutors must prove that Potter caused Wright’s death while committing the crime of reckless handling of a firearm. This means they must prove that she committed a conscious or intentional act while handling or using a firearm that creates a substantial or unjustifiable risk that she was aware of and disregarded and that she endangered safety. For second-degree manslaughter, prosecutors must prove she acted with culpable negligence, meaning she consciously took a chance of causing death or great bodily harm. ___ Associated Press writer Michael Tarm in Chicago contributed to this story. Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin.