Newly Released Video Shows Ex-Officers Charged In George Floyd's Death Performing Similar Maneuver
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Video involving three of the former Minneapolis Police Officers charged George Floyd's death has just been released, taken just three weeks before Floyd's fatal arrest.
In the video, obtained by the Star Tribune, former officers Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng are shown handcuffing a suspect who is Black and on the ground, with Derek Chauvin nearby.
They were responding to a call of a woman being held hostage by an armed man.
Officers thought the man at the scene had a knife; it was a knife sharpener. And he turned out not to be involved and was released.
Judge Peter Cahill rejected the prosecution's attempt to introduce the video in the Floyd case. And a defense attorney for Lane says the video actually helps his case.
Attorney Earl Gray told us Lane and Kueng were still recruits at the time of this arrest and that Chauvin and the other officer were supervisors.
"He (Lane) was not a cop he was a recruit, the training officers were telling him what to do," Gray said. "The video doesn't show the whole story."
Criminal Defense Attorney Joe Tamburino is not affiliated with the Floyd case, but he says the new video could even help the defense.
"The police officers thought he had a weapon and they took him to the ground. That is for all intents and purposes proper police procedure," Tamburino said.
The video does have similarities to the Floyd video, where bystanders were also confronting police. And it's yet another video potential jurors will see before the trial.
Asked whether it's possible for potential jurors to not be influenced by the videos that have been released, Tamburino said, "It's almost impossible because we are all human beings."
That is why jury selection in Chauvin's murder trial, which is set to start March 8, is expected to take at least two weeks.
Tom Plunkett, the attorney for Kueng, told WCCO: "Mr. Kueng and Lane were not officers at that time, they were recruits. The video is from a situation where officers responded to a report of an armed man with a hostage."
