Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer captured on video kneeling on the neck of 46-year-old George Floyd as he begged for his life has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, the Guardian of UK reported.
“There may be subsequent charges later,” Mike Freeman, the lead prosecutor for Hennepin county, told reporters at a press conference. He said a detailed complaint would be made available on Friday afternoon.
The state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension took Chauvin into custody, but did not specify where the 19-year veteran is being held.
The charges came as Andrea Jenkins, the city council vice-president, said Floyd and Chauvin knew each other as “co-workers for a very long time”. The men reportedly worked together for more than 17 years as bouncers at a local Latin club.
Smoke hung over the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis on Friday after demonstrators stormed and burned down the city’s third police precinct, the headquarters of the officers involved in Floyd’s death.
As flames engulfed the building, chants of Floyd’s name and “No justice, no peace” could be heard. Protesters cheered and celebrated with fireworks, while police officers watched from two blocks away but did not intervene.
Floyd died in police custody on Monday after the white officer handcuffed him before kneeling on his neck for several minutes, despite Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe.
Four officers, including Chauvin, were fired.
Cellphone video footage of Floyd suffocating under the officer’s knee has gone viral, prompting three nights of protests in Minneapolis and reigniting long-standing anger over systemic racism in America, especially in the criminal justice system.
While the majority of protesters were peaceful, some demonstrators looted businesses and set fires in Minneapolis, seven people were shot and injured in demonstrations in Louisville, more than 40 people were arrested in New York city, and shots were fired as protesters blocked traffic in downtown Denver.
“I’m really angry about George Floyd because we went through all of this with Michael Brown [who was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014] and it seems nothing changes,” said Marie Johnson, who described herself as black and Native American, as she stood watching the looting in Minneapolis.
“But I’m not at peace with this either. I get that people are angry but it feels like a lot of people here are just grabbing the opportunity for free shopping.”
In Louisville, protesters had turned out to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, a black woman fatally shot by police in her home in March.
The families of Taylor, Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, a black jogger who was recently killed by two white men vigilantes – including a retired police officer – in Georgia, released a statement late Thursday calling their killings part of “a national crisis”.
“Our government needs to take immediate and widespread action to protect our black and brown communities,” the statement read. “It’s important that now more than ever [that] we use our voices to enact change, demand accountability within our justice system and keep the legacies of Breonna, Ahmaud and George alive.”
The families appeared in a joint press conference Friday to call for more police accountability.
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