(CMR) Former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, has been taken into custody earlier this afternoon after he was seen in a recent video with his knee on George Floyd's neck.
He has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety John Harrington said in a news conference.
“The investigation is ongoing,” Freeman said, adding that he anticipated charges against the other three officers involved in the incident.
“We entrust our police officers to use certain amounts of force to do their job to protect us. They commit a criminal act if they use this force unreasonably,”
he said.
The ensuing public outcry has been immense with multiple buildings in the neighborhood where Floyd died over the past three days. Floyd was arrested on Monday after he allegedly used a counterfeit bill at a convenience store. Shortly after video footage surfaced showing the officer with his knee on Floyd's neck for over seven minutes.
The 46-year-old man was unarmed and handcuffed and was heard crying out that he could not breathe. At one point he also called out for his deceased mother: “Mama, save me”. There was additional footage from another angle that showed three Minneapolis Police Department officers kneeling on George Floyd during his arrest.
The four officers involved have been terminated, but public outcry remains strong as they call for them to be criminally charged.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz pleaded for order un his news conference earlier on Friday as fires continued to burn in the Twin Cities. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the decision to charge former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin is an “essential first step.”
He shared the burning was symbolic of decades and generations of pain and anguish in his city. Further noting during the press conference that:
“What the world has witnessed since the killing of George Floyd on Monday has been a visceral pain, a community trying to understand who we are and where we go from here,”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said President Trump's tweets – that suggested shooting looters – were “just not helpful.”
More than 500 Minnesota National Guard personnel mobilized to several locations in the Minneapolis area, including banks, grocery stores and pharmacies to quash the protests and looting.
In other shocking news, a CNN news crew was arrested during their live broadcast early Friday morning and later released from police custody. CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez, producer Bill Kirkos, and photojournalist Leonel Mendez were all taken into police custody despite identifying themselves as members of the media. CNN shared that:
“Our CNN crew identified themselves, on live television, immediately as journalists.”
However, state patrol still arrested them and later confirmed they were members of the media at which time they were released.
The protests were spilling over into other American cities as well and now considered nationwide.
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