All four police officers involved in the detainment of George Floyd, who died after one of them pressed a knee into his neck for several minutes, have now been charged.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison charged former Minneapolis police officers Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao with aiding and abetting murder on Wednesday in Hennepin County Court. All three were fired after Floyd’s death in police custody.
And the since-fired officer who pinned Floyd by the neck, Derek Chauvin, had his third-degree murder charge upgraded to second-degree murder. According to Minnesota law, a guilty verdict in a second-degree murder charge has a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, which is 15 more years than the maximum sentence for third-degree murder.
“Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is increasing charges against Derek Chauvin to 2nd degree in George Floyd’s murder and also charging other 3 officers. This is another important step for justice,” Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar tweeted Wednesday.
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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is increasing charges against Derek Chauvin to 2nd degree in George Floyd’s murder and also charging other 3 officers. This is another important step for justice.
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) June 3, 2020
Last week, Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was accused of using a fake $20 bill to pay for cigarettes at a deli. The police were called, and in their efforts to apprehend him, Chauvin, who is white, applied pressure to the back of Floyd’s neck with his knee for nearly nine minutes. Even though Floyd repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe, the officer did not let up until after Floyd appeared to lose consciousness. Floyd was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Chauvin was taken into custody Friday and was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said over the weekend that the other three officers involved in Floyd’s death were “complicit.”
“Being silent or not intervening — to me, you’re complicit. So, I don’t see a level of distinction any different,” he explained on Sunday. “Silence and inaction, you’re complicit. You’re complicit. If there were one solitary voice that would have intervened … that’s what I would have hoped for.”
Over the weekend, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced that Ellison, a former Democratic member of Congress, would lead the prosecution.
“We are looking very carefully at holding everybody accountable who failed to do their duty and fell below the legal requirements of their position or did something affirmatively that would be in violation of the law,” Ellison said shortly after the appointment was publicized.
An independent autopsy concluded that Floyd’s death was “homicide caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain,” according to a statement from the family’s lawyer.
The judgment differed from the Hennepin County medical examiner’s preliminary autopsy. The county autopsy, which the Floyd family rejected, found “no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation.” The medical examiner later concluded that Floyd suffered a heart attack during his arrest and that his manner of death was a homicide.
Protests, both violent and nonviolent, have spread throughout the country as demonstrators strive to raise awareness of systemic racism and police brutality.
