Newly released video camera video of a third officer involved in the arrest of George Floyd for the first time the growing horror of viewers pleading with officers several times to date Floyd.
The video released Thursday comes from Tou Thao, one of the four former Minneapolis police officers accused of Floyd’s death. Floyd, who was black, died after a white officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee against nearly eight minutes of Floyd on a street in Southern Minneapolis on May 25, because Floyd repeatedly said he could not breathe. .
The deaths caused massive protests across the US – and around the world – against racial injustice and police brutality.
During the arrest, Thao detained a crowd of nearly a dozen bystanders, many of whom were recording the scene with their mobile phones, when Chauvin Floyd nibbled at his knee. Two other officers, Thomas Lane and J. Kueng, arrested Floyd, who was suspected of passing a $ 20 counterfeit note at a convenience store.
In Thao’s video, a man in a Northside Boxing Club sweatshirt calls on Chauvin to “get off his … neck, bro,” and asks Thao as he advises Floyd, “Are you going to keep him like this?”
The man addresses Thao and says, ‘You will let him have that man killed for you, bro? Bro, he does not agree … just move now, bro. “
Thao orders the audience on the sidewalk. At one point, he tells viewers, “This is why you do not do drugs, children.”
When a woman who identifies herself as a Minneapolis firefighter arrives in uniform, Thao yells at her, “Back!” She wonders if the officers checked Floyd’s pulse.
“Show me a pulse,” she asked the police.
‘Check his pulse,’ says the man. ‘You’re wrong, bro. ‘Do not do drugs,’ bro? … You name what he does OK? ‘
The club grows more annoyance. “What do you do?” cries a young woman. “He’s dying!”
As the man approaches Thao with his phone, Thao steps back to the sidewalk and shouts, “Go out into the street!”
Prosecutors earlier this week filed Thao’s body-cam footage. On Monday, body-cam video of two of the other officers, Lane and Kueng, was released on the orders of a judge. That footage, along with Thao’s video, shows Floyd pleading with the officers as they struggle to place him in the squad car.
Floyd says all he can do is breathe and cries for his mother before he goes out. He was pronounced dead at a hospital that evening.
Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. Lane, Kueng and Thao are accused of abuse and mistreatment of both second-degree murder and abuse. All four officers were discharged and are scheduled for trial in March.
Minnesota Atty. Gen. Keith Ellison, whose bureau is pursuing the case, has asked the judge to visit all four officers together. Defense attorneys must meet by Sept. 8. Respond.
The next court hearing for the four is scheduled for Sept. 11.
