A Minneapolis man is changing his story about the relationship between George Floyd and now-former police officer Derek Chauvin.
After telling CBS Evening News that the two men “bumped heads” while working together at Maya Santamaria’s club as security guards, their former colleague David Pinney walked back his claim on Wednesday. Pinney said he had misidentified Floyd and that the man he believed was Floyd was actually a different black man who worked at the bar.
“There has been a mix up between George and another fellow co-worker,” he wrote in an email sent to CBS News, retracting his statement a day after saying he knew Floyd “pretty well.”
“I knew George on a work basis,” he said in a prime-time television spot on Tuesday. “We were pretty close. When it came to our security positions, he was in charge, and I worked directly below him as a security adviser.”
Pinney, who described Chauvin as “very aggressive” in the taped interview, apologized in his email for not doing his “due diligence” before claiming the men had “bumped heads” in the past.
Pinney’s interview, combined with the revelation that Chauvin and Floyd worked together, has led to further examination of the alleged relationship the two men may have had before Floyd died in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department last month.
Chauvin, who pinned Floyd down by pressing his knee onto his neck for several minutes while arresting him, has been fired and charged with second-degree murder. Three other officers involved in Floyd’s arrest are were also fired and are facing charges of aiding and abetting murder.
