Weeks after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, another detail has emerged about the day of his death. According to TMZ, a 911 dispatcher was alarmed after seeing footage of Floyd’s arrest, and she subsequently called a police supervisor to the scene. The publication reported that the dispatcher even noted during the conversation that she was concerned by the amount of “force” that the officers were using to arrest Floyd. On May 25, Floyd, an unarmed African American man, was killed after Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes. Chauvin was subsequently arrested and charged for his role in the incident while three other officers who were at the scene — Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane — were also later arrested and charged.
In their conversation, the 911 dispatcher openly questioned whether the officers involved needed to use as much force as they were during Floyd’s arrest. She was so concerned by footage from the scene that she even contacted a police supervisor. The dispatcher reportedly told the supervisor, “You can call me a snitch if you want to, but we have the cameras up … I don’t know if they had to use force or not, but they got something out of the back of the squad [car], 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.”
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The supervisor then responded, “Yeah, they haven’t said anything yet … just a takedown, which doesn’t count, but I’ll find out.” The dispatcher replied, “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, but …” and the conversation then ended. TMZ noted that it is unclear if the police dispatcher responded to the scene before Floyd was loaded into the ambulance. There were no supervisors on the scene when the incident occurred.
Floyd’s death has set off widespread protests around the country, with individuals highlighting numerous issues that have been affecting the Black community, such as racial injustice and police brutality. As previously mentioned, all four officers involved in this incident have subsequently been arrested. (They have also all been fired from the Minneapolis Police Department.) Chauvin has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. The other three officers — Thao, Kueng, and Lane — have been arrested and charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter.
