Thomas Lane biography: 13 things about ex-cop involved in George Floyd’s arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Who is Thomas Lane?

Thomas Kiernan Lane is an American man born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Amid the new coronavirus (COVID-19) in 2020, he lost his job as a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota along with his fellow rookie cop J Alexander Kueng and two veterans namely Derek Michael Chauvin and Tou Nmn Thao.

The four cops were involved in the fatal arrest of George Floyd, a black man originally from Houston, Texas, USA. Floyd died almost 90 minutes after the arrest.

On May 25, 2020, Lane, Chauvin, Thao and Kueng, responded to a report from an employee at Cup Foods at 3759 Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis claiming that a customer bought cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. It was Lane’s fourth day on the police force.

When the Minneapolis Police Department fired Lane, he was still in his probationary period. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. He did not graduate from high school but he got his general educational development (GED) diploma.
2. He earned an associate degree from Century College, a two-year community and technical college in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
3. As a volunteer for nationally recognized Somali nonprofit organization Ka Joog, Lane tutored young Somali refugees in Cedar Riverside, Minneapolis, Minnesota in science and math activities.
4. Before becoming a Minneapolis Police Department officer, he worked as a laborer, a telemarketer, a security guard, a server and bartender at different restaurants throughout Minneapolis and as a Home Depot sales associate.
5. From 2000 to 2017, he held at least 10 jobs.
6. From 2001 to 2018, he had several traffic violations including speeding, obstructing traffic and parking-meter violations.
7. In October 2001, he was charged with two counts of obstructing legal process, damaging property, unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct and was convicted of one count of obstructing legal process and one charge of damaging property.
8. In March 2007, he faced misdemeanor charges of hosting a noisy party or gathering and disorderly conduct and was found guilty of the noisy-gathering charge.
9. In 2008, his grandfather Donald M. Mealey, a Minneapolis police detective, died at the age of 92.
10. In 2016, he earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology of law, criminology and deviance from the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
11. From 2017 to 2018, he worked as an assistant probation officer at a residential treatment facility for adolescent boys and as a correctional officer at the Hennepin County juvenile jail.
12. In 2018, he got married.
13. After his arrest in 2020, he was represented by Earl Gray.

TIMELINE

2019

• In January 2019, he was accepted to the police academy.
• On February 19, 2019, he was hired by the Minneapolis Police Department as a police cadet.
• In December 2019, he started working as a police officer.

2020

• On May 25, 2020, he said he was worried about excited delirium while holding Floyd’s legs but it was ignored by Chauvin, who was kneeling on Floyd’s neck.
• On May 26, 2020, the Minneapolis Police Department fired him, Chauvin, Kueng and Thao.

2021

• On May 7, 2021, a federal grand jury indicted him for violating Floyd’s civil rights and depriving Floyd of medical care.

2022

• On February 24, 2022, 12 jurors found him, Thao and Kueng guilty of depriving Floyd of his civil rights by showing deliberate indifference to Floyd’s medical needs as Chauvin knelt on Floyd on May 25, 2020. 
• On May 18, 2022, he pleaded guilty to a state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in the murder of Floyd.
• On July 21, 2022, he was sentenced to 2.5 years in federal prison at Englewood Federal Prison in Littleton, Colorado, USA.
• On September 21, 2022, he was sentenced to three years in prison for a state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death.

2023

• In 2023, he served his state and federal sentences congruently at Englewood Federal Prison.

2024

• On August 20, 2024, he was released from prison after completing his state and federal sentences. 

2025

• On March 8, 2025, he turned 42.