George Floyd said he couldn’t breathe more than 20 times, called out for his children and late mother and said officers would “kill” him before he died in Minneapolis police custody, new evidence showed.
Floyd, a black man, died on May 25 when a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. His death has unleashed a massive wave of protests against systemic racism and police brutality in the United States and inspired demos across the world.
At one point, as Floyd insisted they were going to kill him, officer Derek Chauvin shouted, “Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk.”
According to the transcript, Floyd’s last words were, “They’re going to kill me. They’re going to kill me. I can’t breathe.”
The transcript was submitted Tuesday by Thomas Lane, one of the officers involved in Floyd’s death, to have the charges that he aided and abetted in the murder thrown out by a judge.
He and the other three officers involved – Chauvin, Tou Thao and Alexander Kueng – were all fired from the Minneapolis police force one day after Floyd’s death and charged in his murder. They each face up to 40 years behind bars.
Chauvin, who knelt on the handcuffed 46-year-old’s neck, faces second and third-degree murder charges.
Thao and Kueng, like Lane, have been charged with aiding and abetting a murder.