Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who pinned his knee on George Floyd’s throat before he died, has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder, Mike Freeman, Hennepin County attorney, told a news briefing. This comes after three nights of violent protests in the Midwestern city sparked by the death. “He is in custody and has been charged with murder,” Freeman said of Chauvin, who is white. “We have evidence, we have the citizen’s video, the horrible, horrific, terrible thing we’ve seen over and over again.” Freeman said a detailed complaint would be made available later on Friday. The cellphone footage showed Floyd repeatedly moaning and gasping while he pleaded to Chauvin, kneeling on his neck, “Please, I can’t breathe.” After several minutes, Floyd gradually grows quiet and ceases to move. Earlier on Friday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called for an end to the violent protests that have rocked Minneapolis, and said the state’s National Guard would work to restore order following three nights of arson, looting and vandalism. Walz also said he expected “swift” justice for the officers involved and promised a reckoning with the racial inequities behind the unrest triggered by Floyd’s death
“We have to restore order to our society before we can start addressing the issue,” Walz told a briefing, referring to decades of racial divide across the United States. “We cannot have the looting and recklessness that went on.”
Walz also apologized for the arrest of a CNN TV crew who were led off in handcuffs while reporting live on television early on Friday close to a police precinct that was burned overnight, saying there was “no reason” it should have occurred.
Officers gave no explanation as they escorted CNN reporter Omar Jimenez, a producer and camera operator away. The crew had just shown a protester being taken into custody when about half a dozen police officers in gas masks surrounded Jimenez. They were released about an hour after being arrested.
The striking footage of the arrest of Jimenez could add to racial tensions in the city and across the country over the death of Floyd. Jimenez is black, while most of the police officers who arrested him appeared to be white.
U.S. President Donald Trump weighed in on the unrest on Friday with incendiary language that prompted Twitter to hide his tweet behind a warning that accused him of “glorifying violence” in violation of its rules.
“These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen,” Trump said in the tweet. “Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”
A bystander’s cell phone footage showed Floyd repeatedly moaning and gasping while he pleaded to the officer kneeling on his neck, “Please, I can’t breathe.” After several minutes, Floyd gradually grows quiet and ceases to move.
Walz said he understood what was driving the protests, saying he believed the community had “lost faith” in the police force and “felt they were part of the problem.” But he said Floyd’s plight had gotten “lost in 48 hours of anarchy.”
More protests were expected in several U.S. cities on Friday over the killing of Floyd and other unarmed black people, including Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by police in her home in Louisville, Kentucky, in March. At least seven people were shot, one critically, in a Louisville protest on Thursday night.
In New York, organizers are planning a demonstration in Lower Manhattan on Friday to demand that police be held accountable for the deaths. They are also calling for charges to be brought against a white woman who was recorded calling the police on a black man in a park who asked her to keep her dog on a leash.
Comments are closed.