Fourth officer guilty in Floyd case
Ex-Minneapolis lawman blocked bystander’s first-aid effort
A former Minneapolis police officer who held back bystanders as other officers restrained George Floyd was found guilty Monday of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s killing.
Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill said in the verdict that the former officer, Tou Thao, who had waived his right to a jury trial, “actively encouraged his three colleagues’ dangerous prone restraint of Floyd.” Thao, 37, was the last of the four officers with unresolved criminal charges in the killing of Floyd.
Floyd died on May 25, 2020, after one of the officers, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee on the man’s neck for more than nine minutes. Two other officers held Floyd down while Thao, who was Chauvin’s partner, kept away bystanders who were saying that Floyd was struggling to breathe and needed help.
The killing of Floyd, who was Black, was captured in video recorded by bystanders, setting off protests that evolved into a global movement for racial justice.
Thao is currently serving a 3½-year federal sentence for failing to provide medical help to Floyd and for failing to stop Chauvin. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 7.
“While we have now reached the end of the prosecution of Floyd’s murder, it is not behind us,” Keith Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general, said in a statement. “There is much more that prosecutors, law-enforcement leaders, rank-and-file officers, elected officials, and community can do to bring about true justice in law enforcement and true trust and safety in all communities.”
The legal team for Floyd’s family, including the lawyer Ben Crump, said in a statement Tuesday that the family was “grateful for another measure of accountability for his death.”
“Nearly three years after George was killed,” the statement said, “the family and Minneapolis community continue to heal as the criminal justice system prevails.”
Thao was set to face a jury trial on the state charges but instead asked Cahill to determine his guilt or innocence in an unusual process in which the defense and the prosecution jointly present an agreed-to set of facts. As part of this process, Thao waived the right to testify and to question witnesses.
“Like the bystanders, Thao could see Floyd’s life slowly ebbing away as the restraint continued,” Cahill wrote in the verdict. “Yet Thao made a conscious decision to actively participate in Floyd’s death.”
Prosecutors said Thao, who was an officer for nearly nine years, ignored police training and “acted without courage and displayed no compassion.”
“Thao held back the concerned onlookers, and even prevented an off-duty firefighter from rendering the very medical aid Floyd so desperately needed,” prosecutors said in a written closing argument filed Jan. 31.
Thao’s lawyer, Robert Paule, argued in the defense’s written closing argument that Thao believed that Floyd was experiencing excited delirium, a vague and poorly understood diagnosis that is often cited in cases when people die in police custody.
“Whether or not this medical phenomenon is real, Thao was taught that people in these highly agitated states are extremely dangerous to themselves and others, unless they are restrained until they are sedated,” Paule wrote.
Paule said in the closing argument that “every one” of Thao’s actions that day was based on training he received from the Minneapolis Police Department.
Floyd, 46, was arrested after a convenience store employee accused him of buying cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. The Police Department fired all four officers involved in his arrest the day after Floyd was killed.
Chauvin was found guilty of murder in April 2021 and later pleaded guilty to a federal charge of violating Floyd’s civil rights. He is expected to spend more than two decades in prison.
J. Alexander Kueng, who helped to pin Floyd as he gasped for air, including by placing his knee on Floyd’s torso, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in October. Kueng, who is Black, was also convicted in federal court in February 2022 of violating Floyd’s constitutional rights by not providing medical care or intervening to stop Chauvin. He is concurrently serving a three-year sentence and a 3½-year sentence.
Thomas Lane, who held down Floyd’s legs, pleaded guilty in May 2022 to a state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Lane, who is white, was also convicted of violating Floyd’s rights. He is serving two sentences, for 2½ years and three years, concurrently.