One of the four officers currently facing charges in the killing of George Floyd on May 25 is seeking to have the charges against him dropped. Thomas Lane, a now-former officer with the Minneapolis Police Department, is currently facing charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. After creating a GoFundMe to help aid with legal expenses, on Wednesday, he filed a motion to have the charges dismissed based on the transcripts from bodycam footage.
TMZ acquired the transcripts, which came from bodycams worn by both Lane and his codefendant, J. Alexander Kueng, which revealed that the 46-year-old Floyd seemingly startled as Lane approached. Lane then briefly drew his weapon and told Floyd to show his hands. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Floyd can be heard saying. “God dang man. Man, I got shot. I got shot the same way, Mr. Officer, before.” At that point, Lane then asked a woman who was in the car with Floyd why he was “getting all squirrelly” and “just being all weird like that?” The woman then told Lane that he was acting that way “because he’s been shot before.”
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Kueng’s bodycam footage then revealed that he helped escort Floyd from his vehicle across the street to sit down, at which time Floyd thanked him and gave his ID info, telling him, “I got shot last time, same thing, man.” Kueng then informed Floyd he was being detained on suspicion of trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill, which then led to a struggle by Kueng and Lane to get him into the back of a squad car. After that point, Derek Chauvin got involved, who was the officer who pushed his knee into the back of his neck for nearly nine minutes, killing him in the process.
While Floyd was being restrained, Lane asked, “Should we get his legs up?” Though Chauvin and Kueng rejected the idea. Although the four officers then appeared to deliberate on their theory that Floyd may have been intoxicated while he continued to plead that he wasn’t able to breathe. “I can’t breathe. Please, your knee on my neck. I can’t breathe, s—.”
As Floyd uttered what would become his final words, Lane asked if they should move him to his side, but was again shot down by Chauvin, saying “that’s why we got the ambulance coming.” However, Lane was seen expressing some concern while Floyd was losing consciousness. The court filings claim that he “did not intentionally aid, advise, hire, counsel, or conspire with Chauvin or otherwise procure Chauvin to commit second-degree murder.”
