Ex-officer Tou Thao of the Minneapolis Police Department defended himself in court on Tuesday saying that when Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck, he didn’t know it was “improper technique.”
Thao underwent police training in 2009 at the Minneapolis Police Academy and brought photos to show during his testimony. In several photos, instructors and recruits alike are seen kneeling on subjects.
“Was this something taught at the academy when you were there?” Thao’s defense lawyer Robert Paule asked.
“Yes,” Thao responded.
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“Were you ever instructed that using knees was improper technique?” Paule asked.
“No,” Thao said.
During her line of questioning, prosecutor LeeAnn Bell asked Thao if the hold Chauvin had on Floyd was a “neck restraint” as defined by MPD policy and training. Thao admitted that it was not.
Thao was one of three other police officers at the scene when ex-officer Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes. The other two, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, are standing trial alongside him. Chauvin was convicted of Floyd’s murder last year.
While Thao was the one to call an ambulance for Floyd, he insisted in his testimony that his job was that of a “human traffic cone,” claiming he was trying to “create a barrier to protect the officers and paramedics so if one of the bystanders approached, [he’d] be able to handle them quickly.”
The former officer also admitted that the officers were all trained to start CPR as soon as possible if they could not find a pulse. Thao himself never touched Floyd but testified that he was led to believe that Chauvin had checked for a pulse and found one.
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In 2012, during his first year of training in the field, Thao was cited seven times according to court filings based on police records. At times, these citations claimed, he pretended not to see law violations to avoid doing more work.
