The three former cops who were with Chauvin when he knelt on Floyd’s neck on May 25, 2020, face federal charges of depriving Floyd of his civil rights.
Incarcerated ex-cop Derek Chauvin took the lead on the day he killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, an attorney for one of the other officers at the scene argued Monday in court. The three former cops who were with Chauvin when he knelt on Floyd’s neck on May 25, 2020, face federal charges of depriving Floyd of his civil rights. “You’ll see and hear officer Chauvin call all of the shots,” lawyer Tom Plunkett, who is representing ex-officer J. Kueng, said Monday. Prosecutors claim Kueng and fellow officers Tou Thao and Thomas Lane didn’t intervene as Chauvin, who is white, knelt on the neck of Floyd, an unarmed Black man, for more than nine minutes. Kueng and Lane helped hold Floyd down, while Thao tried to stop others in the area from getting involved. “For second after second, minute after minute, these three CPR-trained defendants stood or knelt next to officer Chauvin as he slowly killed George Floyd right in front of them,” prosecutor Samantha Trepel said in her opening statement in the St.
