George Floyd

Around 8 p.m. on May 25, Minneapolis police officers responded to a call from a store clerk who claimed Mr. Floyd paid for cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill, the Police Department said in a statement. The police said the man was found sitting on top of a blue car and “appeared to be under the influence.”“

He was ordered to step from his car,” the statement said. “After he got out, he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress.” The statement said that the officers had called for an ambulance.

According to charging documents however, the officers had tried to get Mr. Floyd into a police vehicle. Mr. Floyd struggled with the officers, “intentionally falling down, saying he was not going in the car, and refusing to stand still.”Mr. Floyd began saying repeatedly that he could not breathe.Mr. Chauvin eventually placed him in the police car with Mr. Kueng’s help

At 8:19 p.m., Mr. Chauvin pulled Mr. Floyd out of the passenger side of the squad car. Mr. Floyd hit the ground, face down, handcuffs still on. Mr. Kueng held Mr. Floyd’s back while Mr. Lane held his legs.Mr. Chauvin lodged his left knee in “the area of Mr. Floyd’s head and neck,” the documents said, and Mr. Floyd continued to protest: “I can’t breathe.”The day after Mr. Floyd’s death, the police updated their statement. 

Some video shows officers taking a series of actions that violated the policies of the Minneapolis Police Department and turned fatal,leaving Mr. Floyd unable to breathe even as he and onlookers called out for help.The day after Mr. Floyd’s death, the Police Department fired all four of the officers involved in the episode. 
Seventeen minutes after the first squad car arrived at the scene, Mr. Floyd was unconscious and pinned beneath three police officers, showing no signs of life.

On May 29, the Hennepin County attorney, Mike Freeman, announced third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges against Derek Chauvin, the officer seen most clearly in witness videos pinning Mr. Floyd to the ground. 

Mr. Chauvin, who is white, kept his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for at least eight minutes and 15 seconds.
Video shows that Mr. Chauvin
did not remove his knee even after Mr. Floyd lost consciousness and for a full minute and 20 seconds after paramedics arrived at the scene.

On June 3, Hennepin County prosecutors added a more serious second-degree murder charge against Mr. Chauvin and also charged each of the three other former officers — Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao — with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.