A Minneapolis 911 dispatcher became concerned watching real-time footage of George Floyd’s arrest last month and called a supervisor to alert him to what she saw.
Floyd, 46, died on May 25 after then-Officer Derek Chauvin pinned him to the ground, pressing his knee into the prone man’s neck for nearly nine minutes, well after he lost consciousness. Chauvin and three other officers have been fired and charged in the case, which prompted world-wide protests over police use of force, particularly against Black people, as CrimeOnline has previously reported.
The unidentified supervisor told the unidentified dispatcher he would “find out” what was going on, but no supervisor responded to the scene for another 15 minutes, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.
“I don’t know, you can call me a snitch if you want to but we have the cameras up for (squad) 320’s call, and … I don’t know if they had to use force or not, but they got something out of the back of the squad, and all of them sat on this man, so I don’t know if they needed you or not, but they haven’t said anything to me yet,” the dispatcher said, according to a recording of the call released by the city.
“Yeah, they haven’t said anything yet … just a takedown, which doesn’t count, but I’ll find out,” the supervisor responded.
“No problem, we don’t get to ever see it so when we see it we’re just like, well, that looks a little different, but . . . ” the dispatcher said, as her voice trailed off.
“Sounds good, bye,” the supervisor said
The Star Tribune said that the call, which lasted less than a minute, ended at 8:31 p.m. According to a police dispatch report, Sgt David Ploeger was the first supervisor to arrive at the scene, at 8:45 p.m. — 37 minutes after the officers encountered Floyd, who had been suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 at a food store. It’s not known if he was the supervisor in the recording.
Along with the recording, the city released transcripts of two 911 calls about the incident, one from an off-duty Minneapolis firefighter who happened upon the scene.
“Hello, I am on the block of 38th and Chicago and I literally watched police officers not take a pulse and not do anything to save a man, and I am a first responder myself, and I literally have it on video camera,” the unidentified firefighter said. “I just happened to be on a walk so, this dude, this, they (expletive) killed him so …”
According to the transcript, the firefighter asked to speak with the officers’ supervisors, but then the line disconnected. The dispatcher tried to call back, but the calls went to voice mail.
The second 911 call came in at 8:32 p.m.. In it, the caller said that an officer “pretty much just killed this guy that wasn’t resisting arrest.” That call was eventually transferred to a sergeant in the 3rd Precinct, where the incident was taking place.
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