MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Newly released body-camera video from a third officer involved in George Floyd’s arrest captures for the first time the growing horror of onlookers who repeatedly pleaded with the officers to get off Floyd.
The video made available Thursday comes from fired Officer Tou Thao, one of four former Minneapolis police officers charged in the death of Floyd, a handcuffed Black man. Floyd died after a white officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes on a south Minneapolis street May 25 as Floyd repeatedly said he could not breathe. The death sparked massive protests across the U.S. and beyond against racial injustice and police brutality.
Thao held back a crowd of nearly a dozen bystanders, many taping the scene with their cellphones, as Chauvin pinned Floyd with his knee. Two other officers, Thomas Lane and J. Kueng, held down Floyd, who was suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store.
In Thao’s video, a Black man wearing a Northside Boxing Club sweatshirt yells at Chauvin to “get off of his (expletive) neck, Bro” and asks Thao “you gonna keep him like that,” motioning toward Floyd.
“You gonna let him kill that man in front of you, Bro?” he asks Thao. “Bro, he’s not even (expletive) moving right now, Bro.”
