This archive report was first published on 29 June 2020.
Ex-officers charged in George Floyd killing due in court ¶
On June 29, 2020, four former Minneapolis police officers, including Derek Chauvin, were set to appear in court in connection with the death of George Floyd.
Chauvin, 44, was charged with second-degree murder for the death of 46-year-old Floyd, who was unarmed and handcuffed when Chauvin kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes.
Chauvin's bail was set at $1 million, while his colleagues, Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao, were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.
The four officers, who face up to 40 years behind bars, were scheduled to appear in court via videolink from a high-security prison.
Chauvin ignored bystanders who begged him to remove his knee, while one of them filmed the incident on a cell phone. The footage went viral, triggering the largest wave of protests demanding racial equality and police reform in decades.
Anger exploded in the streets of major cities across the United States as the justice system was seen as slow to react to the killing.
The police department sacked the four officers, but the Minneapolis attorney general's office waited four days before charging Chauvin with manslaughter, and did not initially charge his three colleagues.
However, the case was later reassigned to the Minnesota state attorney general's office, and an independent autopsy revealed that Floyd died of suffocation due to the police officer's pressure on his neck and cited the cause of death as 'homicide.'
The charges against Chauvin were increased to second-degree homicide, and his three colleagues were also charged with 'aiding and abetting' the murder.
