The lawyer for one of the police officers charged in connection to George Floyd’s death criticized bystanders who did not “intervene” in the fatal encounter.
Earl Gray, the lawyer for former Minneapolis officer Thomas Lane, who has been charged with aiding and abetting murder, defended his client
during a Monday night interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, questioning those who did not step in as Floyd was being detained.
“If all these people say why didn’t my client intercede,” Gray said, “well, if the public is there, and they’re so in an uproar about this, they didn’t intercede either, and my client’s down where he can’t really see …”
Lane was one of four officers who detained Floyd on Memorial Day after a call about a fake $20 bill. A viral video shows Derek Chauvin, a white officer, pinning his knee against Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. In the video, Floyd could be heard saying he could not breathe, and bystanders implored the officer to let up. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, lost consciousness and later was pronounced dead at a hospital.
“Hold on, hold on, hold on, counselor,” Cuomo said in cutting off Gray. “Two things: One, you’re laying on a man’s legs, you’ve got a fine view of what’s going on with that man, the other officer is literally a foot in front of you on his neck. Two, I understand that he has a senior officer telling him what to do, but there’s also a duty to intervene. If the officer is doing something dangerous to a civilian, you have a duty to intervene, and he did not intervene. And the idea that the civilians should have rushed into a policing situation in the inner city of Minneapolis against four police officers that have weapons and are kneeling on the neck of a man, don’t you think that’s asking a little much of civilians and a little too little of your client?”
“Absolutely,” Gray said. “I just brought that up.”
Throughout the interview, Gray repeatedly claimed that his client’s body camera footage, which has not been released publicly, shows a different story and would prove that Floyd tried resisting arrest.
Protests have popped up across the country over the last two weeks following the death of Floyd.
Chauvin was fired from the department and has been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The three other officers who were involved in detaining Floyd, including Lane, were also fired and charged with aiding and abetting murder.
