Minneapolis, Minnesota cops Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, J Alexander Kueng fired after George Floyd’s death

George Floyd was killed shortly after his arrest in Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. He was 46.

Americans are now crying for justice after the death of the African-American man. It reignited the issues about police brutality and racism in the U.S.

On May 25, 2020, the Minneapolis Police Department received a call from an employee at Cup Foods at 3759 Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, according to Minneapolis Star Tribune. The employee reported that a customer was trying to pay with a counterfeit $20 bill.

Floyd apparently matched the suspect’s description so he was arrested by four cops from the Minneapolis Police Department. A bystander streamed the arrest on Facebook Live, which shows that he was lying face down on the street next to the squad car’s rear passenger wheel while repeatedly telling the cops he could not breathe.

“Please, I can’t breathe,” Floyd pleaded. “Please man. Please.”

To pin Floyd on the ground, one of the cops pressed his left knee on the neck of the African-American man. Meanwhile, two other cops were holding Floyd down while another cop was watching and talking to the bystanders who witnessed the encounter.

“I can’t breathe,” Floyd pleaded again. “I can’t move. My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Everything hurts. Please. Please.”

The cop kneeling on Floyd’s neck was identified as Derek Michael Chauvin, 44, while the other cop seen moving away from his colleagues to tell the eyewitnesses to “get back on the sidewalk” was identified as Tou Nmn Thao, 34. The other two cops are Thomas Kiernan Lane, 37, and J Alexander Kueng, 26.

“Should we roll him?” Lane asked at one point. Chauvin replied, “No, staying out where we got him.”

“Should we roll him on his side?” Lane asked again as he was concerned about excited delirium. Chauvin replied, “That’s why we have him on his stomach.”

Paramedics arrived moments after Floyd started to lose consciousness. He was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis and was declared dead there at 9:25 p.m.

On May 26, 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigations launched an investigation. On the same day, the Minneapolis Police Department terminated Chauvin, Thao, Lane and Kueng, a decision supported by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

For Floyd’s sister Bridgett Floyd, firing Chauvin, Thao Thao, Lane and Kueng was not enough. However, she believes that justice will be served and she has enough faith to stand on it.

“I would like for those officers to be charged with murder because that’s exactly what they did,” Bridgett said when she appeared on the “Today Show” on May 27, 2020. “They murdered my brother. He was crying for help.”

George was originally from Houston, Texas, USA. He worked as a security guard at Conga Latin Bistro in Minneapolis.