The mayor of Minneapolis is calling for charges against the white police officer who knelt on the neck of 46-year-old George Floyd, a black man who died Monday …
The mayor of Minneapolis is calling for charges against the white police officer who knelt on the neck of 46-year-old George Floyd, a black man who died Monday after being restrained.
«Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail?» Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a press conference Wednesday. «If you had done it, or I had done it, we would be behind bars right now.»
The mayor did not specify what the charge should be but said that his determination was based on video of the incident.
The horrifying video spread quickly on social media Tuesday, showing the officer driving his knee into Floyd’s neck as he repeatedly says he can’t breathe.
«We are not talking about a split-second decision that was made incorrectly,» Frey said. «There’s somewhere around 300 seconds in those five minutes, every one of which the officer could have turned back… and removed his knee from George Floyd’s neck.»
‘Why can’t I just be black?»: George Floyd’s death another wound for Minneapolis’ black community
Thousands of protesters demanding justice for Floyd gathered at the intersection where Floyd was restrained. They marched to a city police precinct before clashing with officers late Tuesday.
Four officers involved in the Monday incident have been fired, and Floyd’s family and their attorney, Ben Crump, have called for their arrests. Police identified the officers Wednesday as Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng. Attorney Tom Kelly said he was representing Chauvin, the officer seen with his knee on Floyd’s neck.
More on Floyd’s death: 4 police officers fired after ‘horrifying’ video hits social media
Here’s what we know Wednesday:
Smoke filled the air for a few minutes after Minneapolis Police Department officers fired noise devices and projectiles toward a crowd of dozens gathered outside the Third Precinct. The nonlethal shots were fired after a group of protesters rolled dumpsters onto Minnehaha Avenue about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Several hundred people stood outside the office to chant and hold signs in support of Floyd, with more than 60 officers stood with gas masks and face guards on the other side of a barricade. Most of the crowd implored participants not to throw items at police. When a bottle was thrown, however, an officer fired projectiles toward protesters. A nearby liquor store was broken into and several people were seen taking goods.
Chants of «I can’t breathe» filled Minneapolis’ streets a night earlier night as a crowd of protesters gathered near the intersection where Floyd died. The group marched 2½ miles to a police precinct.
Crump, the lawyer for Floyd’s family, released a statement Wednesday calling for peaceful protests and social distancing. «We cannot sink to the level of our oppressors, and we must not endanger others during this pandemic,» he wrote.
Bridgett Floyd, George Floyd’s sister, told NBC’s «Today» show that the four officers in the video should be charged with murder.
«I would like for those officers to be charged with murder because that’s exactly what they did. They murdered my brother; he was crying for help,» Floyd said Wednesday.
Floyd added that she had faith that the officers would be charged but said their firing wasn’t enough.
«I don’t need them to be suspended and able to work in another state or another county. Their licenses should be taken away; their jobs should be take away, and they should be put in jail for murder,» she said.
George Floyd’s cousin, Tera Brown, also told CNN she wants to see murder charges filed.
«They were supposed to be there to serve and to protect and I didn’t see a single one of them lift a finger to do anything to help while he was begging for his life. Not one of them tried to do anything to help him,» Brown told CNN.
A video taken by a bystander circulating on social media shows Chauvin with his knee pressed into Floyd’s neck while the man repeatedly says he can’t breathe.
