Damarra Atkins pays respect to George Floyd at a mural at George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, April 23, 2021.
Tou Thao has testified he merely served as a “human traffic cone” when he held back concerned bystanders who gathered as former Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes while the Black man pleaded for his life on May 25, 2020.Floyd’s killing touched off protests worldwide and forced a national reckoning of police brutality and racism.Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill found Thao guilty in May of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
He concluded: “Thao’s actions were even more unreasonable in light of the fact that he was under a duty to intervene to stop the other officers’ excessive use of force and was trained to render medical aid.” That trial in federal court ended in convictions for all three. Chauvin pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges instead of going to trial a second time, while Lane and Kueng pleaded guilty to state charges of aiding and abetting manslaughter.