George Floyd, 46, died during a police arrest in May 2020.
St. Paul, United States:
A jury found three former Minneapolis police officers guilty on Thursday of violating the civil rights of African-American man George Floyd, whose May 2020 killing sparked nationwide protests.
Thou Thao, 36; J Alexander Kueng, 28; and Thomas Lane, 38; Paul was convicted after a month-long federal trial in Minneapolis’s sister city of St. Paul for showing “deliberate indifference” to Floyd’s medical needs.
Thao and Kueng were also indicted for failing to intervene to prevent the use of “unjustified force” against Floyd by a fourth officer, Derek Chauvin.
Chauvin, who knelt on the neck of a handcuffed Floyd for about 10 minutes until he suffocated and died, was convicted of murder last year and is serving 22 years in prison.
The arrest and death of Floyd, which was filmed by a bystander in a video that went viral, sparked months of protests against racial injustice and police brutality in the United States and around the world.
A jury of eight women and four men deliberated for 13 hours over two days before finding the three former officers guilty of all charges against them.
Lane did not face a second charge of failing to intervene. Video of the arrest shows that on two occasions he suggested to Floyd to roll over by his side.
– still facing state charges –
Thao, Kueng, Lane and Chauvin were the officers involved in the arrest of 46-year-old Floyd, who allegedly used a counterfeit $20 bill to buy a pack of cigarettes.
Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck, Kueng on his back and Lane grabbed his feet. Thao held back onlookers who were pleading for Chauvin to get out of an apparently distressed Floyd.
In her closing argument to the jury, prosecutor Manda Sertich said that all three officers “knew that George Floyd couldn’t breathe, didn’t have a pulse and was dying.”
“Make no mistake, it’s a crime,” Sertich said.
Lawyers for Kueng and Lane insisted that both officers were only on the job for a few days and deferred to Chauvin, a nearly 20-year veteran and senior officer.
Lane’s defense attorney also noted that he asked Kueng to check Floyd’s pulse and give CPR after the ambulance arrived.
Thao, who is a Hmong American, Kueng, who is black, and Lane, who is white, are still facing charges from the state of Minnesota in connection with Floyd’s death in a trial that begins June 13.
But in a sign of the importance of the case, federal prosecutors also accused the officials of violating Floyd’s constitutional rights.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a press release)
,