Transcripts of body camera recordings during the arrest and killing of George Floyd reveal the 46-year-old Black man was nervous and scared, afraid the police officers who ordered him out of the car were going to shoot him.
Floyd appeared to have been startled when then-Officer Thomas Lane approached and ordered him to show his hands, apologizing and telling Lane, “I got shot the same way, Mr Officer, before,” the transcript reads.
The transcripts have been included in a motion to dismiss filed by Lane’s attorney, along with the transcript of an interview with Lane and photos of money found in Floyd’s vehicle.
Lane, along with ex-officers J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, have been charged with aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter in the May 25 killing of Floyd, which sparked protests across the country. All three officers were fired after the incident, along with Derek Chauvin, who was charged with murder and manslaughter after he knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, until he lost consciousness, as CrimeOnline previously reported.
Lane’s attorney, Earl Gray, argued that Lane — who was holding Floyd’s feet — did not know and could not know what Chauvin was doing.
“It’s not a case where he’s standing by watching another cop pound on somebody’s head,” Gray told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “This is a case where my client twice — twice — asked if we should turn him over and the answer from [Chauvin] was no,” he added.
The transcript from Keung’s body camera reveals that Keung walked Floyd away from the car and had him sit down. The conversation appears calm, but when the officers take Floyd to the car, he seems to panic, telling them he’s claustrophobic.
“Please, I’m not that kind of guy, Mr Officer,” he says. “Please, God, please, man. Don’t leave me by myself, man. Please.”
“I’m claustrophobic.”
Lane says he’ll open the squad car window. Floyd says he had COVID and doesn’t want to get it again. When Chauvin arrives, he orders the officers to “get him down on the ground.” Floyd calls for his mother, says he can’t breathe. “Tell my kids I love them,” he says. He begs for help, repeatedly says he can’t breathe while the officers discuss him, whether he’s high .
Bystanders ask the officers to move him. Floyd goes quiet.
“Check his pulse, check his pulse, check his pulse, check his pulse,” one man says. Lane asked Keung, “You got one?” “I can’t find one,” Keung says. “Huh?” says Chauvin.
Lane and Keung are being the squad car in videos shot by bystanders. Attorney Gray told the Star Tribune he believed the body camera footage itself should be released.
“I think the public should see it,” he said. “That shows the whole picture. If they watch the whole thing, people … couldn’t cherry pick parts of it.”
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[Featured image: George Floyd/Facebook]
