MINNEAPOLIS: Murder charges laid against officer who arrested George Floyd,
Minneapolis under curfew while protests rock cities around U.S.
The former police officer who was seen on video using his knee to pin down George Floyd, a Black man who later died, has been arrested and charged with murder, authorities announced Friday, after days of growing unrest in Minneapolis escalated with the burning of a police station and protests that drew attention from the White House.
The former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, who is white, was arrested by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension on Friday, authorities said. Chauvin, 44, was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, Mike Freeman, the Hennepin County attorney, announced Friday afternoon.
Floyd’s relatives said in a statement that they were disappointed by the decision not to seek first-degree murder charges.
Third-degree murder does not require an intent to kill, according to the Minnesota statute, only that the perpetrator caused someone’s death in a dangerous act “without regard for human life.”
Charges of first- and seconddegree murder require prosecutors to prove, in almost all cases, that the perpetrator made a decision to kill the victim.
Chauvin was also charged with second-degree manslaughter, a charge that requires prosecutors to prove he was so negligent as to create an “unreasonable risk,” and consciously took the chance that his actions would cause Floyd to be severely harmed or die.
An investigation into the other three officers who were present at the scene Monday was ongoing, Freeman said.
The developments came after a night of chaos in which protesters set fire to a police station in Minneapolis, the National Guard was deployed to help restore order, and President Donald Trump injected himself into the mix with tweets that appeared to threaten violence against protesters.
The tensions in Minneapolis reflected a growing frustration around the country, as demonstrators took to the streets to protest the death of Floyd and other recent killings of Black men and women.
Floyd, 46, died Monday after pleading “I can’t breathe” while Chauvin pressed his knee into his neck, in an encounter that was captured on video.
Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, a Democrat, expressed solidarity with the protesters during a news conference Friday but said that a return to order was needed to lift up the voices of “those who are expressing rage and anger and those who are demanding justice” and “not those who throw firebombs.”
Trump, who previously called the video of Floyd’s death “shocking,” drew criticism for a tweet early Friday that called the protesters “thugs” and said that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The comments prompted Twitter to attach a warning to the tweet, saying that it violated the company’s rules about “glorifying violence.”
The president gave his first extensive remarks on the protests later Friday at the White House, declaring that “we can’t allow a situation like happened in Minneapolis to descend further into lawless anarchy and chaos. It’s very important, I believe, to the family, to everybody, that the memory of George Floyd be a perfect memory.”
Addressing his earlier Twitter comments, Trump said, “The looters should not be allowed to drown out the voices of so many peaceful protesters. They hurt so badly what is happening.”
Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis imposed an 8 p.m. curfew to try to stem the escalating violence that has engulfed the city for the last three nights. The curfew will extend through the weekend, according to the mayor’s order, expiring at 6 a.m. each morning. During the hours of the curfew, people are prohibited from travelin g on public streets or gathering in a public place.
But even as the curfew was taking effect on Friday evening, protesters were defying it, gathering in the streets around the police station that was burned a night earlier.
They chanted, “No justice, no peace, prosecute the police!”
Law enforcement officials fired tear gas into the streets and patrolled in military vehicles.
Walz, who activated the National Guard on Thursday as local police appeared to lose control over angry demonstrators, also extended the curfew to St. Paul and said guardsmen would return to the streets in anticipation of more protests.
In the unrest on Thursday night, more than 160 buildings were destroyed, damaged or looted, The Star Tribune reported. Nearly all businesses in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis were shut on Friday, many protected with plywood. During a 90-minute news conference Friday, the governor said that officials should have anticipated that the protests could become violent, but he said it was unrealistic to expect law enforcement to stop people from coming out to demonstrate, even amid the social distancing orders that have been imposed during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Watching what happened to George Floyd had people say, ‘To hell with staying home,’” he said. “The idea that we would go in and break up those expressions of grief and rage was ridiculous.”
Days of protests had intensified Thursday night when the Minneapolis Police Department’s 3rd Precinct station house was overrun by a crowd of protesters, with some people tossing fireworks and other items at officers, while police fired projectiles back.
Officers retreated in vehicles just after 10 p.m. Thursday as protesters stormed the building — smashing equipment, lighting fires and setting off fireworks, according to videos posted from the scene.
Frey said at a news conference Friday morning that he had made the call for officers to flee the 3rd Precinct, saying, “The symbolism of a building cannot outweigh the importance of life.”