A 911 dispatcher who watched real-time footage of George Floyd’s arrest called a police supervisor after becoming alarmed by how the officers handled the situation, new phone recordings reveal.
The city of Minneapolis released the recorded conversation between the unidentified dispatcher and a police supervisor on Monday through its website in which the dispatcher can be heard expressing concern over the incident, which ended in Floyd’s death.
“I don’t know, you can call me a snitch if you want to, but we have the cameras up for [squad] 320’s call, and … I don’t know if they had to use force or not, but they got something out of the back of the squad, and all of them sat on this man, so I don’t know if they needed you or not, but they haven’t said anything to me yet,” the dispatcher said.
“Yeah, they haven’t said anything yet … just a takedown, which doesn’t count, but I’ll find out,” the supervisor responded.
“No problem. We don’t get to ever see it, so when we see it, we’re just like, ‘Well, that looks a little different,'” the dispatcher said.
It’s unclear whether the supervisor responded to the scene, but none were present when Floyd was placed into an ambulance, according to the widely circulated bystander video that caught the entire incident, the Star Tribune reported.
The data released Monday also included the transcript of two 911 calls made by bystanders, including one who was an off-duty city firefighter who witnessed the scene.
“I literally watched police officers not take a pulse and not do anything to save a man, and I am a first responder myself, and I literally have it on video camera,” the unidentified firefighter said. “I just happened to be on a walk, so, this dude, this, they f—ing killed him.”
The transcript showed that the firefighter asked to speak with the officers’ supervisors to explain the situation, but the line disconnected. The dispatcher tried to call back several times, but the calls went to voicemail each time.
Another caller said he witnessed officers refuse to check Floyd’s pulse after an off-duty firefighter told them they should.
“We just watched Officer #987 kill … a citizen,” the person said. “He just pretty much just killed this guy that wasn’t resisting arrest. He had his knee on the dude’s neck the whole time.”
All four now-former officers involved in Floyd’s detainment are facing criminal charges. Derek Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter while three others, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao, were charged with aiding and abetting murder.
Floyd’s death sparked protests around the world about police brutality and racial injustice. Minneapolis’s City Council recently vowed to dismantle its police department and rebuild a new public safety system with the help of community input.
