New video has been released showing the beginning of the confrontation between George Floyd and Minneapolis police that would ultimately lead to Floyd’s death.
Video has also been published on social media that shows Floyd being removed from his vehicle by police.
On Wednesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called for criminal charges to be filed against Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who pressed his knee into Floyd's neck that allegedly led to Floyd's death.
Floyd, 46, died Monday night, and video later emerged showing the man on the ground with a police officer pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck. Footage released of the incident showed Floyd shouting, “I cannot breathe” and “Don’t kill me.”
Officers had responded to a call from a grocery store that claimed Floyd had allegedly used a forged check.
The officers were dismissed soon after a bystander’s video taken outside a south Minneapolis grocery store Monday night showed an officer kneeling on the handcuffed man’s neck, even after he pleaded that he could not breathe and stopped moving.
Floyd's sister, Bridgett, told NBC's "TODAY" show she would like all of the officers involved in her brother's death to face charges.
“I would like for those officers to be charged with murder because that’s exactly what they did,” Bridgett Floyd said. “They murdered my brother; he was crying for help.”
Protesters filled the intersection Tuesday evening in the street where George Floyd died while being restrained by police, chanting and carrying banners that read, “I can’t breathe” and “Jail killer KKKops.” They eventually marched more than 2 miles to a city police precinct, with some protesters damaging windows, a squad car and spraying graffiti on the building.
A line of police in riot gear eventually confronted the protesters, firing tear gas and projectiles. Some protesters kicked canisters back toward police. Some protesters stacked shopping carts to make a barricade at a Target store across the street from the station, and though steady rain diminished the crowd, tense skirmishes stretched late into the evening.
The FBI and state law enforcement are investigating Floyd’s death, which immediately drew comparisons to the case of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died in 2014 in New York after he was placed in a chokehold by police and pleaded for his life, saying he could not breathe.
The police union asked the public to wait for the investigation to take its course and not to “rush to judgment and immediately condemn our officers.” Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said the department would conduct a full internal investigation, and prosecutors will decide whether to file criminal charges against the officers involved.
Several witnesses had gathered on a nearby sidewalk, some recording the scene on their phones. The bystanders became increasingly agitated. One man yelled repeatedly, “He’s not responsive right now!”
Two witnesses, including one woman who said she was a Minneapolis firefighter, yelled at the officers to check the man’s pulse. “Check his pulse right now and tell me what it is!” she said. At one point, an officer said: “Don’t do drugs, guys.” And one man yelled, “Don’t do drugs, bro? What is that? What do you think this is?”
Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights and personal injury attorney, said he had been hired by Floyd’s family.
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