Body camera transcripts reveal new details about night of George Floyd’s death
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In an interview with BCA investigators, former Minneapolis Police officer Thomas Lane described arriving on scene at Cup Foods at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue.
“We got there and entered the building. Entered Cup Foods, the business,” said Lane, during the interview. “There was a staff member there that said, ‘They’re still here.’ He was holding the bill, and he goes, ‘They gave me this. It’s fake $20.’ He pointed across the street, and they’re like, ‘He’s in the car over there. Go get him before he drives off.’ He started walking out, and I was like, ‘Just head back in. We’ll take care of it.’ Me and Kueng walked across the street. There was a vehicle could see was occupied.”
Lane describes approaching the vehicle and saw the people inside moving around. He said when he approached the driver, later identified as Floyd, he didn’t see both hands. According to Lane, he asked Floyd to put both hands up.
Lane drew his gun.
Thomas Lane.[Hennepin County Jail]
“The concern was either that he was trying to stash something or he possibly had a gun,” said Lane when questioned by investigators.
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According to transcripts of both Lane and Keung’s body cameras, Floyd asked the officers “What did I do.” Lane and Keung repeatedly told him to put his hands up.
At one point when Lane asked Floyd to put his hands on the steering wheel again, Floyd replied “Yes, sir. I’m sorry sir.”
The two other people in the vehicle cooperated with the officers.
As the former officers asked Floyd to get out of the vehicle, he said, “Please don’t shoot me Mr. Officer, please.”
Lane replied, “I’m not going to shoot you. Step out and face away.”
Floyd later told officers “I’m sorry, I‘m so sorry. God dang man. Man, l got, I got shot the same way Mr. Officer, before.”
According to the transcripts, Lane and Keung took Floyd into custody. Floyd said, “I didn’t do nothing. I’m not going to do nothing.” Keung said, “Put your hands behind your back then.”
As they put handcuffs on Floyd, he said “I didn’t do nothing wrong, Man. I’m sorry Mr. Officer. I’ll get on my knees, whatever. Oh man, please.” Keung responded, “Stop resisting man.” Floyd said, “I’m not.”
You can read the full transcripts at the links here:
Keung and Lane took Floyd’s name and explained why they were arresting him.
Keung said, “And do you know why we pulled you out of the car? Because you was not listening to anything we told you.” Floyd replied, “Right, but I didn’t know what was going on.” Keung said, “You listen to us and we will tell you what’s going on, all right?” to which Floyd said, “Yes sir.”
Keung replied, “When you’re moving around like that, that makes us think way more is going on that we need to know.”
As they tried to get him to the squad, according to the transcripts, Lane asked Floyd, “What are, are you on something right now?” Floyd said, “No, nothing.” Keung replied, “Because you acting real erratic.”
Floyd said, “I’m scared, man.”
Keung commented on the foam around Floyd’s mouth.
When they near the squad, Floyd again told officers he didn’t do anything.
Keung said, “Stand up, stop falling down.” Floyd responded, “I’m claustrophobic man.” Keung again told him to stand up, with Floyd repeated that he’s claustrophobic.
Floyd begs the officers not to leave him alone, Lane promising to stay with him and crack a window like Floyd requested.
According to the transcripts, they struggled to get Floyd into the squad.
During his interview with the BCA, Lane said, “If this was the door, was going to go around and try and pull his arm through the other side of the squad just to get him in there, so we could close the doors and secure him. I walked around to the other side, went to pull him through. He started really thrashing back and forth, and think he was hitting his face on the glass that goes to the front seat. That was the first time I saw that he was bleeding from the mouth.”
At one point, Floyd said, “I want to lay on the ground, I’m going to lay on the ground. Oh I’m coming down. I’m going down, I’m going down.” Keung replied, “Get in the squad.” Floyd said again, “I’m going down, I’m going down, I’m not going up.”
Another person on scene told him, “Man you going to die of a heart attack, just get in the car.”
Floyd said, “I can’t breathe,” as they told him to get in the car again. “l just had COVID, man. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”
Keung told him to take a seat.
Former officer Derek Chauvin was now on scene and said, “Get him down on the ground.”
Floyd continued to repeat that he couldn’t breathe as the officers looked for a device to hold his legs.
As they continued to restrain him, Chauvin asked if Floyd was high on something. Lane replied, “I’m assuming so” as Keung said “I believe so, we found a pipe.”
According to the transcripts, bystanders tried to intervene.
Floyd continued to complain about his inability to breath.
“Everything hurts,” he said. “I need some water or something. Please. Please. Can’t breathe, officer.” Chauvin replied, “You’re doing lot of talking, lot of yelling.” Floyd said, “They going to kill me. They‘re going to kill me, man.” Chauvin responded, “Takes heck of lot of oxygen to say that.”
After a minute passes, Lane asks, “You want him on his side?”
Chauvin said, “No, leave him. Staying put where we got him.” Lane replied “Ok, just worry about the excited delirium, or whatever.” Chauvin said, “That why we got the ambulance coming.”
About two minutes later, Lane again asks if they should roll him to his side. He asked Keung if he could find a pulse, Keung said, “I can’t find one.”
During his interview with BCA investigators, Lane said Chauvin was not a supervisor that night. He told them, however, that Chauvin has 20 more years of experience.
“Through the whole FTC process, you trust and go to your senior officers for experience and help on calls and what’s the best thing to do in this situation. They give you direction and kind of you follow their lead,” said Lane.
When asked whether he felt something wasn’t right, Lane said, “I would say I felt like it maybe could have been handled differently or we should be reassessing what we’re doing, think is what I was kind of coming to.”
Lane said he checked for a pulse again in the ambulance, riding along and helping perform CPR.
He finished the field training process the Wednesday before this incident, according to the transcript. Keung was his partner on the call.
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