Minneapolis to pay $9m to two people who say Derek Chauvin kneeled on their necks before George Floyd murder

The city of Minneapolis has reached a nearly $9m settlement with two individuals who accused former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of kneeling on their necks in 2017, three years before he killed George Floyd.

The settlement, approved by the Minneapolis City Council on Thursday, concludes civil lawsuits brought against the city by John Pope Jr and Zoya Code. Mr Pope will receive $7.5m, while Ms Code will recieve $1.375m. Both Mr Pope and Ms Code are Black.

Mr Pope’s lawsuit alleged that, in 2017, Chauvin was among the Minneapolis police officers who responded to his family home on a call that Mr Pope’s mother was being abused by her two teenage sons.

Mr Pope, who was 14 at the time, was lying on a bedroom floor on his cell phone when Chauvin entered the room, according to the suit. After he explained what happened, Chauvin allegedly became aggressive — striking him on the head with a flashlight and pinning him to the ground with his knee for at least 15 minutes.

Ms Code’s lawsuit tells a similar story. She claims Mr Chauvin slammed her head onto the ground and pinned his knee against her neck for nearly five minutes, despite her being in handcuffs and posing no threat to Chauvin or anyone else. He did this after Ms Code, who suffers from mental health challenges, allegedly attacked her mother with an extension cord.

Chauvin’s policing sparked an international protest movement in the summer of 2020 after a bystander video showed him kneeling on Mr Floyd’s neck and back for more than nine minutes. Mr Floyd’s last words, “I can’t breathe,” became a rallying cry for Black Lives Matter and the police abolition and reform movement.

Chauvin was eventually convicted for murder in Floyd’s death in 2021, becoming the first white police officer convicted for killing a Black person in Minnesota history. He is currently serving a 21-year prison sentence at a facility in Arizona.

The lawsuits settled Thursday drew a direct link from the treatment of Mr Pope and Ms Code to the killing of Mr Floyd, arguing that if the city’s police department had intervened to get Mr Chauvin off the street or otherwise discipline him, the 2020 murder may never have happened.

The lawsuit accused the Minneapolis Police Department of allowing Chauvin to “field train and indoctrinate dozens of young MPD officers to his ways without fear of discipline or negative sanction and to continue his predatory ways for years,” according to the Associated Press.

Councilmember Elliott Payne, a progressive who represents an area in northeast Minneapolis, said Thursday’s settlement was a “stark reminder” of the work the city of Minneapolis faces to better public safety.

“It’s actually not a Derek Chauvin problem,” Mr Payne said. “It’s an institution problem.”