Portions of body-camera footage showing the deadly arrest of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police were leaked and published Monday by the Daily Mail, despite distribution of the videos being prohibited.
But The Daily Mail said it exclusively obtained the May 25 footage from the body cameras of former rookie officers Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng. The video shows about 18 minutes from Kueng’s body cam and 10 minutes from Lane’s.
The pair were the first to arrive at the Cup Foods convenience store after a complaint that Floyd allegedly tried to pass off a fake $20 bill.
Ben Crump, the attorney for the Floyd family, said the footage reinforces that Floyd posed no threat to the four officers.
“The more video evidence you see, the more unjustifiable George Floyd’s torture and death at the hands of the police becomes,” Crump said Monday in a statement. “Although the allegation against George was for a non-violent offense involving a $20 bill, the police officers approached him with guns drawn, simply because he was a Black man.
“As this video shows, he never posed any threat,” he added. “The officers’ contradictions continue to build. If not for the videos, the world might never have known about the wrongs committed against George Floyd.”
WARNING: The Footage Below is Extremely Graphic
WIBC host Tony Katz offered his perspective on the footage Tuesday morning.
“In the video that I saw, George Floyd was never in a position where he was aggressively attacking officers, but he was clearly not in his right mind. Anybody who says otherwise is lying. So if you told me he needed to be subdued, okay. But there is a moment when even the most pro-law enforcement person in the world has to say, ‘Dude, get off this guy. Get off his neck.’
“Now if you look at toxicology reports, George Floyd did not die of physical trauma – meaning the autopsy found no signs of asphyxiation nor trauma in the neck area. It is very probable that George Floyd died right there of an opioid overdose, but the police didn’t know that. So the question is why didn’t the police get off George Floyd’s neck.
“I will never jump in until I have everything. I took a look at that video and that video is ugly. But there can be no doubt that George Floyd had a lot of issues; he was high as a kite. And if you think you’re going to get George Floyd on second-degree murder, you are out of your mind.
“It’s very clear that officers were dealing with somebody who wasn’t okay and had drug issues going on. Is officer Chauvin responsible for not letting up earlier, the knee on the neck, and not having a better check of your suspect? I argue yes, and I’m willing to take that fight on.
There are two parts of this video, and it doesn’t mean that I’m okay with what happened in the second part of the video with Chauvin’s knee on George Floyd’s neck. But the first part of the video clearly shows that George Floyd was complaining of not being able to breathe, resisting arrest, and behaving erratically prior to being subdued on the ground. It is in the subduing that we have the problem.
“Video is hard to watch and it reminds me once again that I have a responsibility to my listeners and to myself to not speak until I have all the facts. But it won’t be a second degree murder conviction for Derrick Chauvin. But there are definitely things that we can change about part two that would be better for all of us – and we should.
Click the link below to hear Tony’s full commentary.
