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29th May 2020

Officer involved in the death of George Floyd arrested

Carl Kinsella

George Floyd

Arrested four days later.

Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis Police Department officer who was seen on video kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, has been arrested and taken into custody.

In disturbing video footage that has gone viral, 46-year-old black man Floyd is heard saying “I can’t breathe, your knee in my neck.” Chauvin keeps his knee on the man’s neck for several minutes, until Floyd stops moving. Floyd was later confirmed dead.

In a statement issued on Friday afternoon, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said: “The officer who has been identified as Derek Chauvin, in the death of Mr. Lloyd, has been taken into custody.” Three other police officers were also present at the scene and captured on video, but have not been arrested. 

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Chauvin and the three other officers – Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng – were fired.

No charge against Chauvin has been confirmed yet.

The incident occurred four days ago, and delays in arresting Chauvin have resulted in both protests and riots in Minneapolis, the biggest city in Minnesota. Earlier today Omar Jimenez, a CNN reporter working on the ground in Minneapolis, was arrested along with his news team, and later released.

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