Police body camera footage showing Minneapolis police pointing a gun at George Floyd and struggling with him during his fatal arrest was released by the court on Monday.
CNN was permitted last month to view, but not air, the May 25 footage. Eleven weeks after Floyd’s killing, protesters continue to take their anger to the streets of American cities.
The footage, roughly an hour in length, comes from the body cameras of former officers Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng, who were the first to respond to a store where Floyd was accused of passing a fake $20 bill.
About 36 seconds after speaking to a store employee, the officers are outside the vehicle Floyd is driving. Lane trains his handgun on Floyd telling him, “Put your f**king hands up right now!” Floyd pleads with officers, sobbing, at one point putting his head on the steering wheel.
Around three minutes into the video, the officers forcibly pull Floyd from the car and handcuff him. Another struggle ensues when Lane and Kueng attempt to put Floyd in a police SUV.
Kueng tries to push Floyd in through a back door of the SUV, while Lane pulls him from the opposite door. Floyd is yelling throughout and says, “I can’t breathe” for the first time during the encounter.
Floyd falls out of the vehicle on Lane’s side as two more policemen, Tou Thao and Derek Chauvin, arrive and assist in restraining Floyd. The 46-year-old hits the ground alongside the vehicle, the position he was in when 17-year-old Darnella Frazier began filming his final moments.
Roughly 11 minutes and 23 seconds into Lane’s body camera video, Chauvin places his knee on Floyd’s neck. He’s already been cuffed for about eight minutes.
Around 16 minutes into the footage, Floyd utters his final words: “Man, I can’t breathe.” Paramedics arrive about nine minutes after Chauvin puts his knee on Floyd’s neck. A minute later, he is limp and paramedics load him onto a gurney.
The Minneapolis Police Department previously said it was not releasing the footage because it was part of an investigation into the officers’ response.
Lane’s attorney filed the footage in court last month as evidence supporting a motion to dismiss the charges against his client. Only transcripts from the tape were made public. Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill then allowed the media to view it.
Media outlets, including CNN, filed a motion calling for the release of the videos, but Cahill initially declined the request.
Floyd died after Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes. Lane and Kueng helped restrain Floyd as Thao stood between the officers and angry onlookers.
Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Lane, Kueng and Thao are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. All four officers were fired.
Chauvin’s attorney declined to comment when CNN viewed the footage in July. None of the officers has entered a plea, but Thao’s and Lane’s attorneys have requested their clients’ cases be dismissed, and Kueng intends to plead not guilty, his attorney said.
Lane’s attorney, Earl Gray, says Lane asked twice if Floyd should be moved to his side, but Chauvin, a veteran, told Lane that Floyd was fine and to keep him there till an ambulance arrived, according to a court motion.
Lane didn’t see any “visible intentional infliction of harm,” felt restraining Floyd was justified and wasn’t aware Chauvin was committing a crime, the motion says.