4 police officers fired as FBI investigates in-custody death of man in south Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS — Federal authorities are investigating a white Minneapolis police officer for possible civil rights violations, after a video surfaced Monday that showed him kneeling on a handcuffed African American man’s neck and ignoring the man’s protests that he couldn’t breathe. The man later died.
The four officers involved in the incident have been fired, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said Tuesday afternoon.
“This is the right call,” Frey wrote in a Twitter post.
An attorney for the man’s family identified him as George Floyd.
“We all watched the horrific death of George Floyd on video as witnesses begged the police officer to take him to the police car and get off his neck,” read the statement from attorney Benjamin Crump, who also represents the families of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, two African Americans killed in recent high-profile incidents. “This abusive, excessive and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained by the police for questioning about a nonviolent charge.”
Officials have not publicly named the officer in question, but two sources familiar with the investigation identified him as Derek Chauvin.
The racially charged incident threatened to reignite tensions between police and minority communities that reached a boiling point in 2015 after the fatal shooting of Jamar Clark and a weekslong protest outside a nearby police station.
In an early morning news conference at City Hall, Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said he asked for the federal probe after watching the video from a bystander and receiving “additional information” about the incident involving several officers, who have since been relieved of duty.
“There was additional information that I had received that quite frankly, from community sources, that just provided more context than I had preliminarily,” he said, without elaborating the nature or source of the information.
Mayor Jacob Frey said at the same news conference it was clear from the video that race played a part in the encounter.
“Being black in America should not be a death sentence,” said Frey. “For five minutes, we watched a white officer press his knee into a black man’s neck. Five minutes. When year hear someone calling for help, you’re supposed to help. This officer failed in the most basic, human sense. What happened on Chicago and 38th last night is awful. It was traumatic. It serves as a reminder of how far we have to go.”
He continued, visibly shaken: “Whatever the investigation reveals, it does not change the simple truth: He should still be with us this morning.”
Because of the nature of the incident and the race of those involved, the FBI will be looking into whether charges could be brought the officer, Frey said.
A message left for an FBI spokesman wasn’t immediately returned on Tuesday morning.
Gov. Tim Walz released a statement saying “the lack of humanity in this disturbing video is sickening. We will get answers and seek justice.”
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said late Tuesday morning that he has his “most veteran prosecutors” assisting with the investigation in consultation with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“We promise a thorough, expedited review consistent with our on-going commitment to justice,” read a statement from Freeman, whose office will at some time determine whether state-level charges are warranted. “Every person is entitled to fairness; no person stands above the law.”
Multiple sources identified the other officer who is prominently featured in the video as Tou Thao.
The chain of events that led to the man’s death started about 8 p.m. Monday, when police were called to investigate a report of someone trying to pay with a counterfeit bill at Cup Foods, 3759 Chicago Av., and found the man matching the suspect’s description sitting on the hood of his car, according to police and scanner audio posted online. Officers ordered him out of the car and took him into custody, Elder said, adding that their body cameras were turned on.
The incident was streamed by a bystander on Facebook Live, where the archived footage had been watched nearly 80,000 times as of Tuesday morning. Activists and community members say the video casts doubt on the police’s account and reopens old wounds of race and policing.
The video captures the scene from behind a police SUV, showing the man lying face down on the ground next to the rear passenger wheel, writhing, while repeatedly telling police he couldn’t breathe as they held him down.
“Please, please, please I can’t breathe. Please, man,” the man is heard telling the officer, believed to be Chauvin, his voice sounding strained. At one point, he cries out for his mother.
By then, several other witnesses had gathered on the sidewalk outside of Cup Foods, with several recording the scene on their phones. “Bro, you’ve got him down, let him breathe at least, man,” one bystander is heard telling police.
After several minutes, one of the officers is heard telling the man to “relax.”
“Man, I can’t breathe,” the man responds.
“What do you want?” the officer asks.
“I can’t breathe,” the man says, telling bystanders that he can’t get up and asking officers for water. “My stomach hurt, my neck hurt, everything hurts.”
The video cuts out for several minutes, before resuming. The footage doesn’t capture what led to the man’s arrest, only picking up after he has already been taken to the ground and is in handcuffs.
As the incident drags on, the group of bystanders becomes increasingly agitated, yelling at the officers to let the man go.
About the same time, paramedics arrive and put the man onto a gurney and into a waiting ambulance.
John Elder, the police spokesman, said that the technique used was not a department-authorized chokehold.
“In my years as an officer, that would not be what I would ever consider a chokehold,” said Elder, who is a part-time sheriff’s deputy in another county.
In the chaotic hours after the incident, police issued a news release that was to be sharply contradicted by the bystander footage.
The release said that man, whose identity wasn’t released but who is thought to be in his 40s, died at a nearby hospital a short time after the incident, during which he suffered a medical episode while struggling with officers. Speaking to reporters a few hours after the incident, Elder would not elaborate on whether the man had any pre-existing medical conditions, but said that he appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or a narcotic. He insisted that he was limited in what he could divulge because the case had already been turned over to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA).
The man got out of the car on his own, but then “physically resisted” officers, Elder said. After they handcuffed him, officers noticed that the man was in “medical distress,” Elder said, and an ambulance was called to the scene.
He later walked back some of those statements, saying they were based on preliminary information.
“We try to put out information as quickly as possibly, information that we wholly believe to be honest and true.” he said. “And as we’re looking a little further we’re realizing there’s more to this.”
All body camera footage has been turned over to the BCA, which investigates most police shootings and in-custody deaths, and the officers involved have been put on paid administrative leave.
In the meantime, the department will also likely undertake its own internal investigation into whether they violated department policies on use of force and the obligation to intervene if they see another officer engaged in misconduct.
So far, little is known about Chauvin’s time with the department. But department records and news accounts show that he has been involved in at least three police-involved shootings over his career with the MPD: Wayne Reyes in 2006, and Leroy Martinez and Ira Latrell Toles, both in 2011.
The BCA said in a news release that its investigation was separate from the FBI’s civil rights investigation, and that it would turn over its findings to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office for possible criminal charges. The county attorney’s office said through a spokesman that it was monitoring the situation, but had no immediate comment.
The incident drew almost universal condemnation.
“The video of a Minneapolis police officer killing a defenseless, handcuffed man is one of the most vile and heartbreaking images I’ve ever seen,” St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter. “The officer who stood guard is just as responsible as his partner; both must be held fully accountable. This must stop now.”
Nekima Levy-Armstrong, a prominent local activist, said watching the footage made her “sick to her stomach” and called the incident another example of police brutality toward African American men.
“It just reminds me of Eric Garner once again: a black man being accosted by police and pleading for his life saying he couldn’t breathe,” she said, referring to an unarmed New York man who died in 2014 after being placed in a police chokehold. “I’m fully convinced that if police wouldn’t have been called to the scene, then he would still be alive.”
A grand jury later decided against indicting the officers involved, sparking protests around the country. Chokeholds had technically been banned since 1993, but a 2015 report found that the tactic was still commonly used by the city’s officers.
DeVondre Pike says he was heading home from a barbecue when he walked past the block, which was awash in a flashing police lights. He whipped out his phone and started recording the incident’s aftermath.
“I was just worried because this is the neighborhood that I grew up in, because stuff like this happens it kind of scares neighborhood people,” he said in a phone interview. “And I just wanted to do my part so that people could be aware.”
Levy-Armstrong said she was told by witnesses at the scene that the man who died had been involved in some sort of a dispute with the owner of a convenience store across the street before police were called. Whether or not this was true, she said police could have handled the incident differently.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/4-police-officers-fired-as-fbi-investigates-in-custody-death-of-man-in-south-minneapolis/ar-BB14CsXa?ocid=spartandhp&pfr=1
