New Video of George Floyd Killing Shows Officers Ignoring Pleas of Help From Witnesses
A new video of George Floyd's killing surfaced on Sunday, appearing to show Minneapolis police [...]
A new video of George Floyd's killing surfaced on Sunday, appearing to show Minneapolis police officers ignoring pleas from bystanders to let Floyd go while former officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on the 46-year-old man's neck. Floyd's death on May 25 inspired protests against police brutality and racial inequality across the country. Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, while three other officers were charged with aiding and abetting.
Ben Crump, the civil rights attorney representing Floyd's family, released the new video on Instagram and it runs just over four minutes long. The video begins with Floyd already in police custody, laying on the ground with Chauvin's knee on his neck. Another officer, who appears to be Tou Thao, tries to block the bystanders' view as they repeatedly beg the officers to let Floyd stand up. "Get off of his neck! He's not moving!" one person said. Another asked Thao if he was going to let Chauvin kill Floyd.
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Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, including almost three minutes after Floyd lost consciousness. Floyd repeatedly told the officers he could not breathe but was ignored. All four officers were fired, and Chauvin was charged in Floyd's death four days later. Chauvin's bail was set at $1.25 million. Former officers Thao, J. Alexander Keung and Thomas Lane are being held on $1 million bail each.
Crump is a nationally-known civil rights lawyer who first gained national attention in 2012 when he represented Trayvon Martin's family after the 17-year-old Black boy was killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. The attorney is also representing the families of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, reports USA Today. Arbery, 25, was shot and killed by two White men in Georgia in February, but the suspects were not charged for more than two months. Taylor, 26, was killed by three Louisville police officers when they entered her apartment while serving a no-knock warrant.
Crump told USA Today cellphone videos of police killings are a "game-changer," noting that police leave out details in their statements to the press. He said the first statement on Floyd's killing from the Minneapolis Police Department did not even mention that Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes. "The videos, I believe, are a game-changer in the sense that it lets you see for yourself and nobody has to interpret it for you," Crump said. "It's one of those things that black people have said for years that the 'police brutalized me,' 'the police used excessive force against me,' but nobody would believe us."