Prosecutors: Officer was on Floyd’s neck for about 9 minutes
MINNEAPOLIS » As the trial approaches for a white Minneapolis police officer charged with murder in the death of George Floyd, prosecutors are putting the time Derek Chauvin’s knee was on the Black at about nine
man’s neck minutes.
The time has fluctuated before. It was recorded as 8 minutes, 46 seconds in an initial criminal complaint — a figure that became symbolic to many in the weeks after Floyd’s death — before a math error was corrected to make it 7:46. But filings since then, citing time-stamped police bodycamera video, now make it at least nine minutes.
The fact that the figure has evolved probably won’t matter at Chauvin’s trial, which begins Monday with jury selection. One former prosecutor says it’s common for such details to be finetuned as prosecutors build a case. A support group for victims of police violence says the discrepancies won’t have any impact.
“He was obviously on there enough time to think about what he was doing. He heard the man pleading that he couldn’t breathe,” said Toshira Garraway, founder of Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence. “If it was two minutes or if it was five minutes or if it was 10 minutes, he was fully aware … Once he said, ‘I cannot breathe’ … he was supposed to remove his knee.”
Floyd died May 25. He had been handcuffed and was pleading that he couldn’t breathe, but Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck even after he stopped moving and speaking.
Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. Three other officers — Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao — are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter and are scheduled for trial in August.
The narrative in the initial complaint filed May 29 by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office says Chauvin held his knee to Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes, 46 seconds. But the time stamps cited in that charging document indicate it was actually 7 minutes, 46 seconds.
The Associated Press began asking about the error the day after the initial charges were filed, but prosecutors repeatedly declined to address it. The 8:46 detail was repeated in an amended complaint filed days later by the Attorney General’s Office.
In the weeks that followed Floyd’s death, some demonstrators staged “dieins” that lasted 8 minutes, 46 seconds, some lawmakers knelt for that amount of time in the U.S. Senate, and mourners at a memorial service for Floyd stood in silence for 8:46 to reflect on the final moments of his life.
In mid-June, prosecutors acknowledged the one-minute error, but said it would have no impact on the case.
Documents filed by prosecutors in September and October changed the timing yet again. These documents contain the most detailed picture of what happened, citing time stamps from Lane, Keung and Thao’s body camera videos.