Jurors to Weigh Fate of Officers Who Restrained George Floyd as He Died
The New York Times
The three officers at the scene — two of whom held Mr. Floyd down and one who kept bystanders away — are charged with violating his civil rights as Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — In the prosecution’s telling, three Minneapolis police officers did little more than callously watch as their colleague, Derek Chauvin, slowly killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes. In the eyes of defense lawyers, the officers had trusted Mr. Chauvin, the veteran officer on the scene, to do his duty and should be acquitted.
The dueling positions presented on Tuesday brought the arguments in the federal trial over Mr. Floyd’s death to a close, and jurors on Wednesday will begin deliberating whether any of the three officers — Tou Thao, 36; J. Alexander Kueng, 28; and Thomas Lane, 38 — are guilty of violating Mr. Floyd’s civil rights.
Jurors have heard from doctors, police officers and other witnesses since the trial began nearly a month ago, and now they must decide whether any of the officers’ actions on May 25, 2020 — for which they were quickly fired — rose to the level of a crime. Mr. Kueng and Mr. Lane, who were both on their first week on the job as full officers, helped to hold Mr. Floyd down, and Mr. Thao kept back a group of concerned bystanders. All three officers are charged with failing to provide medical aid to Mr. Floyd, while Mr. Kueng and Mr. Thao are also charged with failing to intervene to stop Mr. Chauvin.
