MINNEAPOLIS —A federal grand accused four Minneapolis police officers of civil rights violations for roles in the death of George Floyd last May. Among the indicted was Derek Chauvin, who already stands convicted in a state-level criminal trial of killing Floyd. Chauvin’s fellow officers, also, have state criminal trials pending. The new indictments, filed in federal court, accuse the four of depriving Floyd of the right to be free from “unreasonable force by a police officer.” Floyd died with Chauvin pressing a knee into his neck for 9-plus minutes while the others failed to intervene to save Floyd. The new indictment names officers J. Alexander Kueng, 27; Thomas Lane, 38; and Tou Thao, 35. All were fired by the Police Department after Floyd’s death. Except for Chauvin, 45, who is in prison, they are free on bond until their state criminal trials.
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Police abuse pattern?
A separate new indictment accuses Chauvin in a 2017 case in which it’s alleged he held a 17-year-old boy down for 17 minutes and belted him repeatedly with a flashlight. As in the Floyd case, the teenager was handcuffed and prone. The new indictment alleges excessive police force as a civil rights violation.
Chauvin. He’s already convicted of murder, a state crime, for killing George Floyd. . Now he’s accused of federal civil rights violations, a distinct legal issue, in not only Floyd’s death but in the arrest of a Minneapolis teenager two years earlier.