Charges filed against all four police officers in Floyd killing
MINNEAPOLIS, United States — Three Minneapolis policemen were charged Wednesday for their role in the killing of a handcuffed black man that ignited nationwide protests, while more serious charges were filed against the officer primarily responsible.
Minnesota prosecutors had announced a third-degree murder indictment Friday against 44-year-old Derek Chauvin — the white officer filmed kneeling on the neck of George Floyd for nearly nine minutes while he pleads: "I can't breathe."
But they said they were increasing the charge, roughly akin to manslaughter, to second-degree murder, which does not involve premeditation but carries stiffer penalties.
"I believe the evidence available to us now supports the stronger charge of second-degree murder," Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison said.
"We're here today because George Floyd is not here," Ellison added. "He should be here. He should be alive. But he's not."
Chauvin's three colleagues at the scene of Floyd's May 25 arrest for allegedly seeking to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit bill are accused of being complicit in the killing.
Tou Thao, 34, J. Alexander Kueng, 26, and Thomas Lane, 37, were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.
The arrest of all of the officers involved has been a persistent demand of protesters who have taken to the streets of dozens of US cities for the past nine days to condemn police brutality and demand racial justice.
Tens of thousands of people defied curfews in several US cities overnight to voice anger over 46-year-old Floyd's death but the protests were largely peaceful and did not feature the looting or clashes with police of previous days.
Floyd's family, in a statement, called the arrests a "bittersweet moment" and a "significant step forward on the road to justice."
"These officers knew they could act with impunity, given the Minneapolis Police Department's widespread and prolonged pattern and practice of violating people's constitutional rights," his family said.
"We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of support by Americans in cities across the country, and we urge them to raise their voices for change in peaceful ways."
'Last resort'
While condemning Floyd's death, President Donald Trump has adopted a tough stance towards the protesters, saying they include many "bad people" and "you have to have dominant force."
"We need law and order," he repeated on Wednesday.
Trump has also raised the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy active duty troops to quell unrest, an option rejected by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who said the National Guard should play that role when needed.
"The option to use active duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations," Esper said.
"We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act."
Trump meanwhile denied media reports that he was rushed for his safety to the White House bunker while protests raged in the streets outside.
"It was a false report," Trump told Fox News Radio, before saying that he did go into the secure area for an "inspection" and only for a "tiny, little, short period of time."
Reports of Trump taking shelter sparked a wave of online mockery, which is believed to have contributed to his decision on Monday to make a controversial walk across Lafayette Park — just outside the White House grounds — to visit a partly damaged church.
Police violently dispersed mostly peaceful crowds of protesters to clear a path for Trump, and the photo opportunity was loudly condemned by religious leaders, the president's political rivals, and onlookers around the country.
National Guard troops have been heavily involved in controlling the unrest in several US cities and Trump threatened on Wednesday to send them to Democratic-ruled New York City if the authorities there "don't get their act together."
'No more'
White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said Wednesday that the Insurrection Act remains "a tool available" to the president, who is facing a tough reelection battle in November.
"The president wants to protect America's streets," McEnany said. "We cannot have burning churches. We cannot have police officers that are shot. We cannot have businesses that are looted and destroyed."
Protests continued on Wednesday in several US cities and curfews remained in place in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, while slightly loosened.
Los Angeles County narrowed its curfew by four hours, from 9:00 pm to 5:00 am instead of 6:00 pm to 6:00 am.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said the curfew in Washington would be from 11:00 pm to 6:00 am instead of starting at 7:00 pm.
Former president Jimmy Carter called meanwhile for an end to racial discrimination.
"People of power, privilege, and moral conscience must stand up and say 'no more' to a racially discriminatory police and justice system, immoral economic disparities between whites and blacks, and government actions that undermine our unified democracy," the 95-year-old Carter said in a statement.
"We need a government as good as its people, and we are better than this." — with Chris Lefkow in Washington
Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Atlanta were among several US cities to announce curfews Saturday in a bid to stem violent anti-police protests breaking out across America.
A nighttime curfew was also implemented in Louisville, Kentucky as the United States continues to be rocked by demonstrators angry at the death of a black man during an arrest in Minneapolis on Monday.
George Floyd was handcuffed and died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, sparking the widespread protests against police brutality. — AFP
Photo: Demonstrators confront secret service police officers outside of the White House on May 30, 2020 in Washington DC, during a protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes. Demonstrations are being held across the US after George Floyd died in police custody on May 25. Jose Luis Magana / AFP
Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of the murder of George Floyd, was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison on Thursday on federal charges.
Chauvin, who is white, pleaded guilty in December 2021 to violating the civil rights of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, during his May 2020 arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy a pack of cigarettes.
Chauvin is already serving a 22-and-a-half-year sentence after being convicted of state murder charges for Floyd's death, which sparked protests against racial injustice and police brutality across the United States. — AFP
Several hundred protesters marched Sunday in Akron, Ohio after the release of body camera footage that showed police fatally shooting a Black man with several dozen rounds of bullets.
As anger rose over the latest police killing of a Black man in the United States, and authorities appealed for calm, a crowd marched to City Hall carrying banners with slogans such as "Justice for Jayland."
The slogan refers to Jayland Walker, 25, who was killed Monday after officers tried to stop his car over a traffic violation, police said.
Sunday marked the fourth straight day of protests. Demonstrations were peaceful but for a tense moment in which some protesters got close to a line of police and shouted at them.
After the first rally, a crowd of people remained in the street protesting.
Fearing potential unrest, authorities in the city of 190,000 people moved snowplows and other heavy equipment near the police department to serve as a barrier.
After initially providing few details of the shooting, Akron authorities released two videos Sunday: one that was a compilation of body-camera footage, body-cam still frames and voiceover, and another of the complete body-cam footage of the entire chase and shooting.
The voiceover explained that Walker did not stop and drove off. Police engaged in a car chase and said a shot had been fired from Walker's vehicle.
After being chased for several minutes, Walker got out of his car while it was still moving and fled on foot. Officers tried to subdue him with their tasers, but he kept running.
Several officers finally chased Walker to a parking lot. The body-cam footage is too blurry to see clearly what happens, but an initial police statement released after the shooting says he behaved in a way that caused officers to believe he posed a "deadly threat."
All of the officers at the scene opened fire on Walker, shooting multiple times in rapid succession.
He was pronounced dead at the scene. — AFP
A Minnesota jury begins deliberating the fate of three former police officers charged with violating the civil rights of George Floyd, the African American man whose murder sparked nationwide protests.
Tou Thao, 36, J. Alexander Kueng, 28, and Thomas Lane, 38, are on trial in federal court in Saint Paul for their roles in Floyd's May 2020 death in the sister city of Minneapolis.
"It's your duty to find the facts," Judge Paul Magnuson tells the jury of eight women and four men, "and then apply the law."
"Don't allow sympathy or prejudice to influence you," the judge says before sending the jurors off to begin their deliberations. — AFP
Sculptures of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, two Black Americans whose deaths at the hands of police in 2020 rocked the United States, are to be auctioned for charity after being exhibited in New York, Sotheby's said Thursday.
The pieces will be on sale online until December 17 and the profits will go to associations founded by the families of the two victims, "We are Floyd" and "The Breonna Taylor Foundation," Sotheby's said.
The two statues are the work of artist Chris Carnabuci, while the statue of Taylor has been decorated by Brooklyn-based Nigerian artist Laolu Senbanjo, also known as Laolu NYC, who has worked with Beyonce in the past.
The golden statue of George Floyd, who was killed last May at age 46 when a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for some nine minutes, had been vandalized with spray paint while on display in Union Square in Manhattan.
It has since been cleaned up, and the 1.8 meter (six foot) sculpture is expected go for between $100,000 and $150,000. — AFP
A US court has handed down a four-year sentence to a former police officer charged with illegally beating a Black undercover colleague posing as a protester at a 2017 demonstration.
A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Randy Hays, 34, to more than four years in jail after the former cop pleaded guilty in 2019 to using excessive and unreasonable force, according to court documents.
Hays, along with former officers Dustin Boone and Christopher Myers were accused of knocking to the ground an undercover officer who was monitoring protesters, and then kicking and striking the officer with a police baton.
On Thursday, another former officer, Bailey Colletta, was given a three-year suspended sentence for lying to a federal grand jury during its investigation of the incident.
Boone was found guilty by a jury in June and is due to be sentenced on September 15, exactly four years after the incident. — AFP
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