The lawyer for the family of the killed African American George Floyd calls the case a “turning point for police work in America”. According to a report, new video footage of the fact has also been released.
The family of African-American George Floyd, who was killed in a brutal police operation, has filed a lawsuit against the US city of Minneapolis and the four police officers involved for unlawful killing. “While all of America is struggling with the public health crisis of the coronavirus epidemic, black America has to deal with another pandemic of police brutality,” lawyer Benjamin Crump told a federal court in Minneapolis on Wednesday. But the case was “the turning point for police work in America,” said Crump.
The 46-year-old Floyd was arrested on May 25 by the police on suspicion of a minor counterfeit money offense. A policeman had put his knee on the neck of the man lying on the floor for almost nine minutes. Floyd’s death sparked worldwide demonstrations against excessive police violence and racism.
Up to 40 years in prison for main perpetrators
The main perpetrator is charged with “second degree murder”. This roughly corresponds to homicide in a particularly serious case and can be punished with up to 40 years in prison. The four police officers involved were released from police service the day after Floyd’s death.
The lawyer did not disclose the amount of the family’s claims for compensation in the civil lawsuit. In May 2019, the city of Minneapolis was sentenced to pay the survivors of a yoga teacher who was killed by a police officer while she was sitting in her car, for the payment of $ 20 million, or about 17.6 million euros.
Video material released
The US news channel CNN meanwhile reported that previously unpublished video material has indeed been released. The snippet captured by the now accused police officers’ body cameras and made available by a court shows that Floyd’s last words were actually “I can’t breathe”.
Just last week, the entire past few minutes of his life had been published in a transcript. The last sentence of Floyd’s was missing. Before his death he had said the transcripts more than 20 times “I can’t breathe”.
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