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Derek Chauvin could have stopped restraining George Floyd sooner, ex-supervisor says

01 April 2021
 Dan Ackermann

Derek Chauvin's former supervisor, retired police Sgt. David Pleoger, testified Thursday that officers could have stopped restraining George Floyd sooner.

The big picture: The testimony capped off the fourth day of the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Chauvin, who faces murder and manslaughter charges.

What they're saying: "Based on your review of the body worn camera footage, do you have an opinion as to when the restraint of Mr. Floyd should have ended in this encounter," a prosecutor asked.

  • "Yes," Pleoger said. "When Mr. Floyd was no longer offering up any resistance to the officers, they could have ended the restraint."
  • The prosecutor then asked if that was when Floyd was handcuffed and on the ground, and Pleoger said, "Correct."

Jurors also heard Chauvin describing the May 2020 incident through a body camera that captured a call between Chauvin and Pleoger. Chauvin told his then-supervisor that Floyd "was going crazy."

  • Pleoger testified he wasn't immediately told that Chauvin had placed his knee on Floyd's neck. When Chauvin told him later that night, Pleoger said the then-officer did not reveal how long his knee had remained on Floyd.

Pleoger also said 9-11 dispatcher Jena Scurry contacted him and said she was concerned about how police officers were handling the situation.

  • He said that he fielded concerns through 911 dispatch about possible excessive use of force by officers, but that his initial assessment at the time was that it was a less serious takedown.
  • Scurry testified earlier this week that she felt a "gut instinct" that "something was not right" as she watched police officers hold Floyd on the ground.

Go deeper:

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.