One of the police officers present at the 2020 death of George Floyd, who choked to death under a police officer’s knee in Minneapolis, was found guilty of aiding and abetting murder, according to court documents released Tuesday.
Tou Thao had kept at a distance those bystanders, startled by the scene, who tried to intervene while the black man in his mid-40s died on the ground. The ex-cop has already been found guilty of “violating the victim’s civil rights” and sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
A court in Hennepin County, Minnesota, ruled Monday that he was guilty of an accessory to murder. His sentence is due to be determined on August 7th.
Tou Thao “was a veteran police officer from Minneapolis”. “He knew that immobilizing[a suspect]face down could kill,” the judge said in his ruling.
“Like passers-by, Thao could see the life slowly leaving Floyd’s body. However, he made the decision to actively participate in his death: urging worried bystanders away and even preventing an off-duty Minneapolis firefighter from providing the medical assistance Floyd so desperately needed.
That decision, which concludes the court case in the murder of George Floyd, “is the one that had to be made,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison responded in a press release.
“She bears more responsibility for the tragic death of George Floyd. Accountability is not synonymous with justice, but it is another step towards justice,” he added.
On May 25, 2020, white police officer Derek Chauvin, a veteran Minneapolis police officer, knelt on the African American man’s neck for almost ten minutes, indifferent to the interventions of shocked passers-by and the groans of George Floyd.
Two other officers had helped hold him down.
The scene, which was filmed and posted online, sparked huge protests against racism and police brutality across the United States and beyond.
Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder by the Minnesota judiciary after a well-attended trial and sentenced to 22.5 years in prison.
Tou Thao is the youngest of the police officers involved to be found guilty.