Mugshots Released Of All 4 Officers Involved In George Floyd’s Murder

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office has released the mugshots of all four former Minneapolis police officers charged in the murder of George Floyd. Derek Chauvin, the cop who kneeled on Floyd’s neck for nearly 12 minutes, choking him to death, was the first to be charged last week while Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao were arrested and charged on Wednesday, June 3.

1. Lane, Kueng, and Thao were charged with aiding and abetting a murder. The crime carries up to 40 years behind bars if the men are found guilty of aiding and abetting a second-degree murder, and it seems unlikely that they wouldn’t be. However, if found guilty of aiding and abetting a manslaughter, the maximum sentence goes down to 10 years, CNN reports. They stood by as Chauvin murdered George Floyd and did nothing, and now they will have to face the consequences of their inaction.
2. The charges against Chauvin were upgraded on Tuesday. In addition to the arrest of the other three men, the third-degree murder charges Chauvin was facing were officially upgraded to second-degree murder, indicating that there was evidence that Chauvin acted with the deliberate intention of causing severe harm to George Floyd and with complete indifference for his life.
3. George Floyd died by asphyxiation. While authorities originally claimed that Floyd had underlying issues which caused his death, a private autopsy later revealed that he had actually been asphyxiated due to Chauvin’s knee on his neck for nearly 12 minutes, preventing his diaphragm from working correctly. Again, this was murder, plain and simple.
4. The lead prosecutor in the case admitted there’s a difficult road ahead. While it’s encouraging to see steps forward towards getting justice, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison admitted that it will be difficult to see them pay for their crimes given their history in the police force. “This case is unusual because of the way that Mr. Floyd was killed and who did it: at the hands of the defendant, who was a Minneapolis police officer,” Ellison said according to CBS Minnesota. “Prosecuting police officers for misconduct, including homicide and murder, is very difficult. And if you look at the cases that have been in front of the public in the last many years, it’s easy to see that is true. Every single link in the prosecutorial chain will come under attack as we present this case to a jury or a fact-finder.”
5. George Floyd’s murder cannot go unpunished. Difficult or not, it’s time for things to change. We cannot keep allowing black men and women to be killed with impunity. Enough is enough.