Four Minneapolis officers fired after death of black man

MINNEAPOLIS — Four Minneapolis police officers who were involved in the arrest of a black man who died in police custody were fired Tuesday after a bystander’s video showed the man pleading that he could not breathe as a white officer knelt on his neck.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey tweeted about the firings, saying “This is the right call.”

The man’s death Monday night after he struggled with officers was under investigation by the FBI and state law enforcement authorities. It drew comparisons to the case of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died in 2014 in New York after he was placed in a chokehold by police and pleaded for his life, saying he could not breathe.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey apologized to the black community Tuesday in a post on his Facebook page.

“Being Black in America should not be a death sentence. For five minutes, we watched a white officer press his knee into a Black man’s neck. Five minutes. When you hear someone calling for help, you’re supposed to help. This officer failed in the most basic, human sense,” Frey posted.

Police said the man matched the description of a suspect in a forgery case at a grocery store, and that he resisted arrest. The unidentified officer ignores his pleas. “Please, please, please, I can’t breathe. Please, man,” the man is heard telling the officer.

After several minutes, one of the officers tells the man to “relax.” Minutes pass, and the man becomes motionless under the officer’s restraint. The officer leaves his knee on the man’s neck for several minutes more.

Several witnesses had gathered on a nearby sidewalk, some recording the scene. The bystanders became increasingly agitated as the man pleaded with police. One bystander told officers they need to let him breathe. Another yelled at them to check the man’s pulse.

The man who died was identified as George Floyd by Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights and personal injury attorney who said he had been hired by Floyd’s family.

“This abusive, excessive and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained by the police for questioning about a non-violent charge,” Crump said in a statement.

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said the department would conduct a full internal investigation.

JIM MONE / ASSOCIATED PRESS Mourners gather Tuesday around a memorial in Minneapolis near where a black man was taken into police custody and died.