New Charges Filed in Death of George Floyd

USA – (WARSOOR) – New criminal charges were filed Wednesday in the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died last week while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison charged Derek Chauvin, the white police officer who held his knee on Floyd’s neck even as Floyd said he could not breathe, with second-degree murder, a stiffer charge than the third-degree-murder charge he previously faced along with second-degree manslaughter.

In addition, Ellison charged three other former officers who were at the scene and did not intervene in the incident on May 25 — Tou Thao, Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane — with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. All four officers were fired in the immediate aftermath of Floyd’s death, but only Chauvin was charged with criminal conduct in the case.

Floyd’s death has spawned more than a week of protests throughout the United States, many of them largely peaceful, as was the case Tuesday night and during the day on Wednesday.

But some protests quickly devolved into raging clashes between authorities and demonstrators, with police cars and government buildings set afire and looters ransacking stores.

The civil unrest has perhaps been the most widespread in the U.S. in decades. The Associated Press reported more than 9,000 arrests have been made throughout the country over the past eight days.

This combination of photos provided by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office in Minnesota on Wednesday, June 3, 2020, shows Derek Chauvin, from left, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao. Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder of George Floyd, a black man who died after being restrained by him and the other Minneapolis police officers on May 25. Kueng, Lane and Thao have been charged with aiding and abetting Chauvin. (Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office via AP)

SOURCE: VOA NEWS