White cop charged with murder over George Floyd in Minneapolis as riots continue
The cop who pinned the neck of George Floyd with his knee has been charged with murder, as prosecutors focus on other police involved and riots continue to flare America-wide. WATCH LIVE
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The police officer who knelt on the neck of unarmed black American George Floyd until he stopped breathing in Minneapolis has been charged with murder as race riots flared across the US.
Fury over Floyd’s death last Monday and the initial reluctance of prosecutors to lay charges against his killer have sparked violent race riots in cities across America.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced an 8pm to 6am curfew for all public areas of the city throughout the weekend, following three nights of riots and looting.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Officer Derek Chauvin was charged with third degree murder and manslaughter, and charges were still being considered against three other officers involved in his death.
“We felt it appropriate to focus on the most dangerous perpetrator,” Mr Freeman said.
Chauvin will be prosecuted by the same team and with the same charges that were laid successfully against Mohamed Noor, the Minneapolis cop who shot dead Australian life coach Justine Damond Ruszczyk after she called 911 for help in July 2017.
US President Donald Trump has been accused of inflaming the discord with his social media messaging. He yesterday walked back from a controversial Tweet stating “when the looting starts the shooting starts”, saying he wasn’t threatening to order the army to fire on protesters but rather noting the shootings that have been part of the protests.
Mr Trump said he had spoken to the Floyd family, describing them as “terrific people” and he ordered a fast-tracked FBI probe of the shooting when Minnesota authorities appeared to be hesitating earlier in the week.
“We can’t allow a situation like happened in Minneapolis to descend further in to the lawless anarchy and chaos,” he said at the White House.
Secret Service are swooping forward to reset fallen barricades before protesters just throw them over again, it’s becoming a cycle where neither side is moving very far. At least two people are being cuffed behind a patrol car. pic.twitter.com/1FX3BJ9EUr
— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) May 29, 2020
The final moments of Mr Floyd’s life were detailed in court papers filed this morning AEST, which showed Officer Chauvin knelt on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, including three minutes after he was unresponsive.
“Police are trained that this type of restraint of a subject in a prone position is inherently dangerous,” the complaint states.
A preliminary autopsy report found he didn’t die from strangulation or “traumatic asphyxia” but that his “underlying health conditions including coronary disease and hypertensive disease” had contributed.
“The combined effects of Mr Floyd being restrained by the police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death,” said the report lodged with Hennepin County Court.
In a bizarre development, a black journalist from CNN was also arrested live on air as he covered the story in Minneapolis. He was later released and the Governor apologised.
It also emerged that George Floyd and arrested cop Derek Chauvin once worked overlapping security shifts at a club in the city.
A lot just popped off at the protest for George Floyd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Pepper spray, batons, and several arrests. pic.twitter.com/ZuciQA82fe
— Jon Campbell (@j0ncampbell) May 29, 2020
Floyd and Chauvin both worked security at the El Nuevo Rodeo Club in Minneapolis in the past 12 months, media outlet KSTP reported.
Violent protests have torn through cities across America in race riots prompted by the on-camera police killing of Floyd, 46, who was unarmed and handcuffed when the police officer pinned him to the road with his knee.
Floyd pleaded to be allowed to get up, gasping: “I can’t breathe.” He was motionless and unconscious when he was finally placed on a stretcher to be taken to hospital.
Four police officers at the scene were sacked after the incident. Reports in the US say the man arrested, Derek Chauvin, has been involved in a number of police shootings and has been the subject of at least 10 conduct investigations.
Mr Trump threatened to “assume control” of Minneapolis, which was rocked by a third night of looting, arson and clashes.
A day after 500 National Guardsmen were deployed, Mr Trump said on social media the military was with Minnesota’s governor “all the way”.
“Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” he said in the post, which was censured by Twitter for “glorifying violence”.
A CNN news crew was arrested live on camera by Minnesota State Police who said they were in a restricted area.
CNN’s reporter Omar Jimenez, who is black, was arrested alongside producer Bill Kirkos and photojournalist Leonel Mendez live on air while reporting on the protests in Minneapolis.
CNN said the crew was co-operating fully with police direction when they were arrested.
“A black reporter from CNN was arrested while legally covering the protests in Minneapolis. A white reporter also on the ground was not,” said the news network in a statement.
The team was released from the Hennepin County Public Safety facility in downtown Minneapolis a few hours later.
Mr Jimenez said he was comforted by the knowledge that his arrest was being filmed and would be shared on social media.
“That gave me a little bit of comfort knowing that you guys saw what was happening, I was living what was happening and the country was seeing what was happening unfold in real-time before their eyes.
“As we were walking away, and you were taking in the entire neighbourhood that had been decimated from the passion of the protesters and unfortunately some of the rioting and looting that we had seen, it did cross my mind that, what is really happening here?”
Rioters with axes and baseball bats took over the city’s 3rd Precinct shortly before midnight, cheering as they torched the police station, with cameras filming the burning of an officer’s jacket.
Emergency services were forced to flee the building after being told to “stand down” by Mayor Jacob Frey.
Police used pepper spray to clear the protesters outside the city station about 4.30am, local time.
The unrest spread to cities in New York, Kentucky and Ohio after Minnesota state prosecutors initially announced they didn’t have enough evidence to charge the police officers with killing Floyd.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said he too had spoken to the families of the three victims.
“We’ve spoken their names aloud. Cried them out in pain and horror. Chiselled them into long suffering hearts,” Mr Biden said.
“They are the latest additions to an endless list of lives stolen - potential wiped out unnecessarily. It’s a list that dates back more than 400 years: black men, black women, black children.”
And Mr Trump’s predecessor in the White House, Barack Obama, the first black president, urged Americans to reshape what was “normal”.
“It’s natural to wish for life ‘to just get back to normal’ as a pandemic and economic crisis up-end everything around us,” Mr Obama said.
“But we have to remember that for millions of Americans, being treated differently on account of race is tragically, painfully, maddeningly ‘normal’ — whether it’s while dealing with the health care system, or interacting with the criminal justice system, or jogging down the street, or just watching birds in a park.
“This shouldn’t be ‘normal’ in 2020 America. It can’t be ‘normal’ If we want our children to grow up in a nation that lives up to its highest ideals, we can and must be better.”
In Colorado, an SUV appeared to steer into Black Lives Matter protesters and gunshots were heard near the state capital.
Mr Floyd’s death on Tuesday was captured by a bystander’s phone, as Officer Derek Chauvin and three other officers restrained him.
“I can’t breathe,” the father-of-two could be heard saying.
The harrowing footage includes audio of an emergency worker bystander pleading for the officers to let her check his pulse.
Mr Floyd was reportedly pulled over for trying to pass a fake $20 note in a deli and the attending officers were investigating a “forgery”.
The four officers have been stood down, but prosecutors initially said there was “evidence that does not support criminal charges” because police are allowed to use force that was “reasonable” and not “excessive”.
The civil unrest drew condemnation from the White House down, with Mr Trump slamming the “total lack of leadership” by Minneapolis police in a series of social media posts.
Mr Trump urged the FBI to fast-track its probe into Mr Floyd’s killing, later blaming the city’s “Radical Left Mayor” for letting “thugs” take control.
“I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right……,” he wrote.
“These THUGS are dishonouring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen.”
A further post was edited by Twitter after the president was accused of glorifying violence. This was the strongest censure the social media has taken in a week of sparring with Mr Trump over the nature of his tweets.
Floyd’s death was the third of a black man at the hands of Minneapolis police in the past five years. Australian life coach Justine Damond Ruszczyk was shot dead by Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor in July 2017 after she called police for help.
Hennepin County lawyer Mike Freeman, who led the successful prosecution of Officer Noor, pleaded for patience, warning of a repeat of previous unsuccessful criminal cases against killer cops.
“We have to do this right, we have to prove it in a court of law,” he said.
“We can’t rush justice as justice can’t be rushed.”
Meanwhile, the beauty queen wife of the Minneapolis cop accused of killing Floyd for allegedly using a fake $20 bill was once criminally charged for writing a bad cheque, a new report says.
Officer Derek Chauvin’s wife Kellie, who was the 2018 Mrs Minnesota America winner, was accused of writing a bad cheque for $A70 to Mega Pick’N Save West in 2005, the Daily Mail reported.
Kellie eventually paid the money she owed and the case was dropped.