Officer: Force used on Floyd ‘uncalled for’

Long-serving cops slam Chauvin tactics

MINNEAPOLIS — The longestserving officer in the Minneapolis Police Department and head of the homicide unit testified Friday in Hennepin County District Court that the level of force used by excop Derek Chauvin on George Floyd was “totally unnecessary” and dangerous.

Lt. Richard Zimmerman and Sgt. Jon Edwards, who was the night supervisor in the Third Precinct where Floyd was arrested, were the only witnesses in a halfday session of court that closed out the first week of testimony in Chauvin’s trial on charges of second- and third-degree murder and manslaughter.

“First of all,” Zimmerman said, “pulling him down to the ground facedown and putting your knee on a neck for that amount of time is just uncalled for.”

Zimmerman was the 19th witness over five days that included 12 eyewitnesses at the scene of Floyd’s arrest and death in police custody on May 25.

Friday’s testimony, which included the introduction of still photos and short video clips, focused on procedure and routine, unlike the previous four emotional days of repeated viewings of the agonizing bystander video and the stories of tearful, traumatized witnesses.

In the first days of testimony, the 14 jurors and everyone else watching the global livestream saw multiple videos from police body-worn cameras and bystanders of Floyd’s arrest in which he was pinned to the pavement on his stomach, handcuffed behind his back for more than nine minutes, calling for his “mama” and saying he couldn’t breathe until he fell motionless and silent.

The fired officers who helped arrest and restrain Floyd, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, are scheduled to go on trial in August on charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter.

Zimmerman, who has been with the Police Department since 1985 and in the homicide unit he now leads since 1995, went through the department’s use of force policy, ranging from simply showing up to a scene and climbing all the way to deadly force.

He said department policy requires that prone suspects who are handcuffed — as Floyd was by Chauvin — must be taken off their chest as soon as possible. The position stretches the chest muscles and makes it difficult for someone to breathe, Zimmerman said.

Prosecutor Matthew Frank asked whether, in Zimmerman’s opinion, the restraint should have stopped once Floyd was handcuffed and prone on the ground?

Zimmerman responded, “Absolutely.”

Frank asked Zimmerman whether he was ever trained to put a knee on the neck of someone in handcuffs.

“No, I haven’t,” he said. Zimmerman said such a tactic would fall under the most extreme level of force by an officer, that being “deadly force.”

“If your knee is on someone’s neck, that could kill them,” he said.

Frank then asked how much a threat a suspect would be once handcuffed.

“The threat level goes down all the way,” the lieutenant said. “They are cuffed; how can they hurt you? … You getting injured is way down,” apart from possibly getting kicked, he continued.

Once the cuffs are on a suspect, Zimmerman said, “that person is yours. He is your responsibility. His safety is your responsibility. His well-being is your responsibility.”