Mayor calls for officer’s arrest

Minneapolis leader: Force used on black man unwarranted, criminal

MINNEAPOLIS — The mayor of Minneapolis called Wednesday for criminal charges against the white police officer seen on video kneeling against the neck of a handcuffed black man who complained that he could not breathe and died in police custody.

Based on the video, Mayor Jacob Frey said officer Derek Chauvin should be charged in the death of George Floyd.

“I’ve wrestled with, more than anything else over the last 36 hours, one fundamental question: Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail?” said Frey, who is white.

He later added: “I saw no threat. I saw nothing that would signal that this kind of force was necessary.”

The day after Floyd died, Chauvin and three other officers were fired — an act that did not stem the flood of anger that followed the widely seen video shot on Memorial Day outside a convenience store.

Protesters marched more than 2 miles Tuesday to the police precinct in that part of the city, with some damaging property and skirmishing with officers in riot gear who fired tear gas. The Star Tribune reported more conflict Wednesday night at the same precinct, with some protesters throwing rocks and bottles at police, who responded with rubber bullets and tear gas.

Another demonstration unfolded on the street outside Chauvin’s suburban home. An officer told protesters that Chauvin was not there. Red cans of paint were earlier spilled on his driveway, and someone wrote “murderer” in chalk at the end of his driveway.

Floyd family attorney Benjamin Crump, a prominent civil rights lawyer, called for peaceful protests.

Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said he was working to change the department’s culture.

“One incident can significantly bring people to doubt that,” he said.

Gov. Tim Walz and Minnesota’s two top law enforcement officials —

Attorney General Keith Ellison and Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington, both black — promised a thorough, transparent investigation.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, which would prosecute any state charges, issued a statement saying that Floyd’s death had “outraged us and people across the country” and that the case “deserves the best we can give.”

The FBI was investigating whether officers willfully deprived Floyd of his civil rights.

Speaking to reporters at Cape Canaveral, Florida, President Donald Trump called the death in Minneapolis “a very, very sad event” and said his administration was going to “look at it.” Later, he tweeted that he had asked for the federal investigation to be expedited.

Democrat Joe Biden said Floyd’s death was “part of an ingrained, systemic cycle of injustice that still exists in this country” and “cuts at the very heart of our sacred belief that all Americans are equal in rights.”