‘I can’t breathe.’ Four officers fired after death of black man pinned by Minnesota cop
Four Minneapolis police officers involved in an incident Monday that ended with the death of a black man have been fired, according to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
The final moments of George Floyd’s life during his encounter with Minneapolis police on Monday are being compared to the 2014 death of Eric Garner.
Video shows Floyd pinned to the ground by a white police officer, whose knee was on the man’s neck. Floyd repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe,” which Garner also uttered before his death when a New York City police officer put him in a chokehold.
Minneapolis police say they responded to a report of a forgery in progress on Monday when officers found the suspect “under the influence” sitting on top of a car. The man allegedly physically resisted officers before he was detained, police said.
The man “appeared to be suffering medical distress,” and an ambulance was called for him, police said.
“I can’t breathe,” he says while being pinned, the video shows. “My stomach hurt, my neck hurt, everything hurts.”
A bystander is heard asking police to check the man’s pulse, but the officer did not remove his knee from the man’s neck until the ambulance arrived.
The man appears to lose consciousness while on the ground, video shows. The woman who shot the video, Darnella Frazier, told Storyful, “It looked as if he was running out of energy and time, and eventually slowly was dying.”
After being transported by ambulance, he died at Hennepin County Medical Center, according to police.
Prominent civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump identified the man on Twitter Tuesday as George Floyd. Crump, who represented Trayvon Martin’s family after Martin was killed in 2012 during a confrontation with George Zimmerman, said Floyd “deserves justice.”
Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges and later sued Martin’s family.
Crump said Tuesday he has been retained by the family of Floyd. “We will seek justice for the family of George Floyd, as we demand answers from the Minneapolis Police Department,” he stated.
The FBI will investigate Monday’s case “as additional information has been made available,” according to Minneapolis police.
Leaders, activists weigh in
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said during a news conference Tuesday morning that “being black in America should not be a death sentence.”
“When you hear someone calling for help, you’re supposed to help,” Frey said. “This officer failed in the most basic, human sense.”
He later said Tuesday afternoon it was “the right call” to terminate the four responding officers. The names of the officers have not been released.
The mayor of neighboring St. Paul, Melvin Carter, said the video “is one of the most vile and heartbreaking images” he has ever seen.
“The officer who stood guard is just as responsible as his partner; both must be held fully accountable. This must stop now,” Carter tweeted.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar also commented on social media about the incident.
“The lack of humanity in this disturbing video is sickening,” Walz said. “We will get answers and seek justice.”
“We heard his repeated calls for help. We heard him say over and over again that he could not breathe,” said Klobuchar, a former presidential hopeful. “And now we have seen yet another horrifying and gutwrenching instance of an African-American man dying,” Klobuchar said before also calling for justice to be served.
When the officers were fired, Klobuchar said it was “one step in the right direction.”
Local activist Nekima Levy-Armstrong told the Star Tribune seeing the video made her “sick to her stomach.”
“It just reminds me of Eric Garner once again: a black man being accosted by police and pleading for his life saying he couldn’t breathe,” she said. “I’m fully convinced that if police wouldn’t have been called to the scene, then he would still be alive.”
Garner was put in a chokehold after officers accused the father of six of selling untaxed cigarettes.
His repeated phrase, “I can’t breathe,” became a rallying cry for people protesting police brutality. Despite Garner’s death being ruled a homicide, the officer was not indicted by a grand jury. The officer, Daniel Pantaleo, was fired last year, The New York Times reported.
A protest “against police violence” will take place at the Minneapolis intersection Tuesday evening where the incident occurred.
“We demand for the names of the officers in question to be released; and for those officers to be fired swiftly and criminally charged for their murderous conduct,” organizers of the Racial Justice Network wrote on Facebook.
