ALL 4 FACE JUSTICE
Each could get 40 years for George Floyd’s death
Charges were upgraded yesterday against Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who knelt on the neck of George Floyd. Chauvin was hit with second-degree murder charges in Floyd’s death, and three of his colleagues were charged with aiding and abetting. All face a maximum of 40 years in prison.
Minnesota authorities on Wednesday upgraded the murder charge against the now ex-cop caught on camera kneeling on George Floyd’s neck — and also charged three other since-fired officers with acting as accomplices in a slaying that has shaken the nation and sparked protests around the world.
Attorney General Keith Ellison said broadening the racially charged case to include all the officers involved in Floyd’s fatal arrest in Minneapolis last week was “in the interest of justice for Mr. Floyd, his family, this community and our state.”
During a news conference announcing the dramatically expanded prosecutions, Ellison noted that “the world heard Mr. Floyd crying out to his mama” while his neck was under the knee of ex-cop Derek Chauvin.
Ellison also said he had a message for Floyd’s grieving family.
“George Floyd mattered. He was loved. His family was important, and his life had value,” Ellison said during a televised news conference,
“We will seek justice for him and for you, and we will find it.”
In addition to adding a new top charge of second-degree murder against Chauvin, court papers filed Wednesday charged Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter,
Thao, 34; Lane, 37; and Kueng, 26, were all taken into custody and booked by Wednesday evening.
If convicted as charged, each of the four men would face up to 40 years in prison.
Chauvin, 44, has been held on $500,000 bail since his arrest Friday on charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. That murder charge carries a maximum 25 years in prison, but the second-degree rap could land him in prison for 40 years.
Chauvin’s wife, Kellie, left him a day before he was busted and has filed divorce papers that say she wants to change her last name and also wants sole possession of their homes in Oakdale, Minn., and Windermere, Fla.
In a prepared statement, the Floyd family and their lawyer, Ben Crump, called Wednesday’s legal developments a “bittersweet moment” but said they were “deeply gratified” by Ellison’s “decisive action.” “This is a significant step forward on the road to justice, and we are gratified that this important action was brought before George Floyd’s body was laid to rest,” the statement said.
“This is a source of peace for George’s family in this painful time.”
The statement also said that Ellison “has informed the family that his office will continue to investigate and will upgrade the charges to first-degree murder if the evidence supports it.” Following Ellison’s news conference, Crump appeared on CNN, where he said, “We believe it should be first-degree murder.”
Crump said that Floyd had been “tortured to death” when Chauvin, who is white, was recorded kneeling on the neck of Floyd, who was black, for nearly nine minutes shortly before 8:30 p.m. on May 25.
Horrifying cellphone video shows that Chauvin ignored Floyd, 46, repeatedly saying “I can’t breathe” as he lay handcuffed on the pavement by a police cruiser during his arrest for allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a grocery store.
The video also captured bystanders pleading in vain to for Chauvin to remove his knee from Floyd’s neck before his limp body was lifted up and placed on a stretcher.
Ellison said an investigation of the incident was continuing and was being conducted in parallel with a federal civil-rights probe that he’d been told has the “full support” of the Justice Department.
But he cautioned that the outcome of his prosecution was far from assured.
“Winning a conviction will be hard,” Ellison said. “History does show there will be clear challenges here.”
Ellison also said that it was “way too early” to say if he would strike plea deals with the defendants and that he was “beginning the process to prepare for trial.”
“If something happens along the way, we will see,” he said.
The charges announced Wednesday came four days after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz put Ellison in charge of the case, replacing Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.
On Thursday, Freeman had said he wouldn’t “rush” to file charges in Floyd’s death, calling the cellphone video “graphic and horrific and terrible” but adding that “there is other evidence that does not support a criminal charge.”
But in the wake of violent protests in Minneapolis and elsewhere around the country on Thursday night, Freeman reversed course on Friday and filed charges against Chauvin.
Freeman appeared at a Wednesday news conference and stood beside Ellison but did not speak.
Ellison insisted that he and Freeman were working together as a team “with only one goal — justice for George Floyd.”