Minneapolis cop charged with murder
Arrest comes after days of unrest around nation
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 manslaughter, Mike Freeman, the Hennepin County attorney, announced Friday afternoon.
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.”
Trump later attempted to explain the tweets with a new set of postings Friday but took no questions from reporters at a White House news conference focused on China.
The protests — some peaceful, some marked by violence — have spread across the country, from Denver and Phoenix to Louisville, Kentucky, and Columbus, Ohio, with more expected Friday night.
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 traveling on public streets or gathering in a public place.
Walz, who activated the National Guard on Thursday as local police appeared to lose control over angry demonstrators, said guardsmen would return to the streets in anticipation of more protests.
During a 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
Frey said at a news conference Friday morning that he had made the call for officers to flee the 3rd Precinct.
Frey, a Democrat, said he understood the anger of the city’s residents but pleaded with people to stop destroying property and looting stores.
“It’s not just enough to do the right thing yourself,” he said. “We need to be making sure that all of us are held accountable.”
John Harrington, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, said that arrests had been made related to looting Thursday night but that he did not know how many. The arrests included people breaking into the grocery stores, Targets and pharmacies, he said.
Former President Barack Obama on Friday called on the nation to work together to create a “new normal” in which bigotry no longer infects institutions, while former Vice President Joe Biden used a short speech to call for “justice for George Floyd.”
Ben Crump, a civil rights lawyer representing Floyd’s family, released a statement Friday calling the arrest of Chauvin “a welcome but overdue step on the road to justice.” But he said the charges did not go far enough.