Four police officers involved in the murder of George Floyd
are each facing counts amounting to manslaughter.
According to reports, the four killed Floyd intentionally responding
to a call about a $20 counterfeit bill on May 25 when they detained Floyd.
The first police, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee into
George Floyd’s neck while Floyd was lying on the street, according to the video
recorded during the incident.
The 44-year-old was charged on Wednesday with a new, more
serious count of second-degree murder after the previous charges with
third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
The second-degree murder charge says he killed Floyd
“without intent” in the course of committing assault in the third
degree, according to an amended complaint.
Chauvin was arrested last week and is being held at a
Minnesota Department of Corrections facility in Oak Park. His bail was
increased to $1 million Wednesday, reports CNN.
Background
Chauvin was a police officer with the Minneapolis Police
Department for nearly 19 years.
He is subject to at least 18 prior complaints and only two
were “closed with discipline.”
Among them is the 2007 complaint from a woman alleging that
Chauvin had pulled her from her car, searched her and placed her in the back of
a squad car for going 10 miles an hour over the speed limit.
Alexander Kueng
J. Alexander Kueng is said to have helped restrain George
Floyd along with Derek Chauvin and Thomas Lane.
The 26-year-old is charged with aiding and abetting
second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
He was arrested Wednesday and is being held on $1 million
bail, county jail records show.
Background
Kueng was hired as a police officer with the Minneapolis
Police Department in December, after joining the department as a cadet in
February 2019.
He had no prior complaints. When Floyd’s death took place,
it was Kueng’s third shift as a police officer, said Thomas Plunkett, his
attorney. Chauvin was Kueng’s training officer, according to Plunkett, reports
CNN.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the
University of Minnesota.
Thomas Lane
The 37-year-old helped restrain George Floyd, along with
Derek Chauvin and J. Alexander Kueng.
Lane is charged with aiding and abetting second-degree
murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
He was arrested on Wednesday and is being held on $1 million
bail, county jail records show.
Background
Lane joined the police department as a cadet in February
2019.
He had been on the police force for four days when Floyd
died, and his attorney Earl Gray says that he “doing everything he thought
he was supposed to do as a four-day police officer.”
Lane graduated with a bachelor’s degree in criminology from
the University of Minnesota in 2016.
He has worked as a juvenile corrections officer for Hennepin
County and as an assistant probation officer.
Tou Thao
Tou Thao, 34, was standing near the other officers as they
restrained George Floyd.
He is charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder
and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
He was arrested on Wednesday and is being held on $1 million
bail.
Background
Thao had been a police officer with the Minneapolis Police
Department since 2012.
He had six complaints filed with internal affairs, one of
which was still open, according to a Minneapolis Police Department internal
affairs public summary. The other five were closed without discipline.
Before, he worked as a security guard, a stocker at a
grocery store and a trainer at McDonalds.
Meanwhile, George Floyd lawyer told a memorial service on Thursday
that it is a “pandemic of racism” which led to Floyd’s death.
Lawyer Benjamin Crump said it was “not the coronavirus
pandemic that killed George Floyd, it was that other pandemic. The pandemic of
racism and discrimination.”
Source: CNN and BBC
