4 ex-Minneapolis Officers Indicted On Federal Charges In George Floyd Death

A federal grand jury indicted four former Minneapolis, Minnesota police officers involved in the May 2020 fatal arrest of George Floyd, according to an indictment unsealed on Friday.

The officers are accused of violating Floyd’s civil rights during the arrest in which Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes. Chauvin was convicted last month in state court, and Friday’s announcement marks the first time he will be brought up on federal charges.

Chauvin, J. Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao are being charged with willfully violating Floyd’s right “not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law, which includes an arrestee’s right to be free from a police officer’s deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs.”

“The defendants saw George Floyd lying on the ground in clear need of medical care, and willfully failed to aid Floyd, thereby acting with deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of harm to Floyd. This offense resulted in bodily injury to, and the death of, George Floyd,” the indictment says.

Keung and Thao are also charged with failing to intervene as Floyd was pinned to the ground, repeatedly saying he could not breathe and pleading for relief until he eventually became unresponsive.

Chauvin is solely charged with violating Floyd’s right “to be free from an unreasonable seizure, which includes the right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer.”

A separate two-count indictment charges Chauvin with violating the rights of a 14-year-old Minneapolis resident during a Sept. 4, 2017 arrest. The indictment alleges that Chauvin held the teenager by the throat and repeatedly struck him in the head with a flashlight, which is being classified as a deadly weapon, according to the court document.

The second count charges Chauvin with pinning the teenager, who is identified only as “Juvenile I,” with his knee to the juvenile’s neck and upper back “even after Juvenile I was lying prone, handcuffed, and unresisting.”