The officer who knelt on the neck of George Floyd warned him that talking can use up “a lot of oxygen” as the 46-year-old black man told him he couldn’t breathe.
Transcripts of the body camera footage from officer Thomas Lane were released on Wednesday evening, revealing the final words exchanged between Floyd and Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who has been charged with second-degree murder.
Floyd told the officers several times that he couldn’t breathe during the arrest. While his final words were clear from the video of his death filmed by bystanders, Chauvin’s words to Floyd were not shown. In the moments before Floyd’s death, Chauvin told him: “Stop talking, stop yelling. It takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk.”
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The body camera transcript was made public as part of former officer Lane’s request to have his charges dropped. Lane and the two other responding officers have been charged with aiding and abetting murder. Earl Gray, Lane’s attorney, has argued that there was no probable cause to arrest and charge Lane with assisting in the alleged murder.
The transcript showed Floyd asked officers not to be placed in the squad car because he was claustrophobic. Lane also questioned whether Floyd was “on something” and noted that he had been foaming at the mouth. Floyd had requested to lay on the ground rather than being in the squad car.
Gray argued that it was “reasonably justified” for the officers to restrain Floyd as he was on the ground.
“Based on Floyd’s actions up to this point, the officers had no idea what he would do next — hurt himself, hurt the officers, flee, or anything else, but he was not cooperating,” Gray said.
The transcript also revealed that Chauvin replied to another officer’s claim that he couldn’t find a pulse on Floyd by saying, “Huh?”
Two autopsies found that Floyd died by homicide, but their findings differ on how the man died.
Floyd’s death triggered nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice.
