On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a Black American who was 46 years, was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota. George was killed during an arrest by police officers for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill. A police officer named Derek Chauvin knelt on George’s neck, choking him for close to eight minutes. As all this happened, George Floyd was lying down handcuffed and begging for life and could repeatedly be heard saying, “I can’t breathe.”
An officer named J. Alexander Kueng and his partner Thomas Lane further restrained George as Tou Thao prevented bystanders from intervening. In the last minutes, Floyd got motionless, and his pulse stopped. Chauvin ignored the onlookers who begged him to remove his knee from George’s neck, which he did not until when he was told to do so by medics.
On the following day after videos made by onlookers were posted and became public, all the four police officers were fired. Two autopsies were carried on the body of George, and his death was determined to be a homicide.
Derek Chauvin, the police officer who was video recorded kneeling on George’s neck for 8 minutes, was charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter. He remains in custody on $1.25 million bail.
Thao faces charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder while committing a felony and participating in second-degree manslaughter with culpable negligence. Thao was released from custody after posting a $750,000 bond.
Rest in peace, George Floyd.
