#Ex-cop in George Floyd’s death ‘knew what he was doing,’ police chief said

The police-involved death of George Floyd was “murder” and the officer caught on video with his knee pressed into the man’s neck “knew what he was doing,” according to Minneapolis’ top cop.

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said in a statement released late Monday that ex-cop Derek Chauvin and another former officer involved in Floyd’s death, Tou Thao, had both received department training on preventing people from suffocating while being restrained face-down.

“Mr. George Floyd’s tragic death was not due to a lack of training — the training was there,” Arrandondo told the Star Tribune. “Chauvin knew what he was doing.”

The chief said he echoed the assessment of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison that “what happened to Mr. Floyd was murder.”

“Chauvin has his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for over seven minutes, and for those last minutes he knew that Floyd was non-responsive,” the statement continued.

Arradondo also noted that bystanders during the May 25 incident “shouted out” to the officers that Floyd had stopped communicating, and again later that he was non-responsive as Chauvin restrained him.

“Further, one of the officers on the scene told Chauvin that Mr. Floyd should be put into a recovery position and he eventually told Chauvin that he could not find Mr. Floyd’s pulse,” Arradondo said.

The statement is believed to be the first time Minneapolis’ top cop has characterized Floyd’s death as a murder, the Star Tribune reports.

The statement was released in response to a public records request on whether Minneapolis police made good on a promise in a 2013 settlement to require all uniformed cops to be trained to prevent positional asphyxiation, the newspaper reports.

An attorney for Chauvin has refused to comment on the case, the Star Tribune reports. Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter.

Three other former Minneapolis cops involved in Floyd’s death — Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng — have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

All four officers were fired.

An attorney for Kueng declined to comment on Arradondo’s statement Wednesday, CNN reports.