Over two months after George Floyd was killed by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, footage has been released from the scene of his arrest. On Monday, the Daily Mail published footage from when Floyd was arrested on May 25 in Minneapolis. As seen in the footage, which is incredibly disturbing in nature, Floyd can be heard begging for the cops not to shoot him as one of the officers pulls a gun on him. The video also showcases Floyd’s final moments as Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes, which ultimately led to his death.
The footage that Daily Mail posted came from the bodycams worn by Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng, two of the former Minneapolis police officers who were arrested in connection to Floyd’s death. In mid-July, transcripts from their bodycam footage were released, with a judge ruling that the actual footage could only be viewed in the courthouse. But, it has since been leaked to the Daily Mail. As you’ll recall, officers were originally called to the scene after they received a complaint that Floyd had allegedly attempted to make a purchase with a fake $20 bill. At the beginning of this newly released footage, Lane knocks on Floyd’s car window with a flashlight. When he opens his car door, Lane then pulls out a gun and points it at Floyd’s head, at which point he tells the officer, “I’ll look at you eye-to-eye. Please don’t shoot me man. I just lost my mom, man.”
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Floyd, who is clearly distressed during this incident, tells Lane as he gets out of his vehicle, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. God dang man. Man, I got shot the same way, Mr. Officer, before.” Lane then replies, “Okay. Well when I say ”Let me see your hands,” you put your f—ing hands up.” Floyd frequently shares his worries about being shot by the officer, with Lane stressing that he will not shoot him. At one point Lane asks the others who were in Floyd’s vehicle, “Why’s he being all squirrelly and not showing us his hands and just being all weird like that?” Floyd’s ex, Shawanda Hill, who was in the car, then tells the officer that he is behaving in such a manner because he had been shot before.
After Floyd does step out of his car, the officers can be seen struggling to get him into a cop car as he shares that he has anxiety and that he is claustrophobic. At one point during this interaction, Floyd can even be heard tragically predicting his own death, as he said, “I’ll probably just die this way.” As Floyd continues to relate that he is not feeling well and that he was having trouble breathing, Chauvin and officer Tou Thao, who was also fired by the Minneapolis Police Department and arrested in connection with Floyd’s death, arrive on the scene. While it is not clear how it happened based on the footage, Floyd eventually comes out of the cop car and is later placed on the sidewalk with Chauvin kneeling on his neck. At this point, Floyd relates that he can’t breathe and calls out for his momma. He says at one point, “Tell my kids I love them. I’m dead.” Following this incident, Chauvin was arrested and later charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. Thao, Lane, and Kueng were also arrested and charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter.
