The police officer who killed George Floyd was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison.
The Minnesota state court sentenced the police officer responsible for the murder of George Floyd to 22 and a half years in prison.
A Minnesota state court has sentenced Derek Shavin, a police officer responsible for the murder of George Floyd, to 22 and a half years in prison.
George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in early June of last year by squeezing his knee on his neck for about nine minutes while being held by Chavin, a U.S. police officer, and several other officers. The reason for Floyd being arrested by Chavin and his colleagues was that he had given the seller a counterfeit $ 20 to buy in a shop.
The release of the video of Floyd’s assassination sparked a wave of protests against racism and police violence in the United States that spread to other parts of the world. The killing of several other black citizens by US police has also been instrumental in fueling the protests.
The trial for the third-degree murder charge by Derek Chavin lasted about three weeks, and he was eventually found guilty after refusing to present his defense in court.
In delivering Mr. Chauvin’s sentence on Friday, Judge Peter A. Cahill referred to the “particular cruelty” of the crime, which was captured in a widely shared cellphone video, as Mr. Chauvin held Mr. Floyd down for more than nine minutes in May 2020. Mr. Floyd could be heard crying out more than 20 times that he could not breathe.
Shortly after reading the sentence from the bench, Judge Cahill issued a 22-page memorandum about his decision, writing, “Part of the mission of the Minneapolis Police Department is to give citizens ‘voice and respect.’” But Mr. Chauvin, the judge wrote, had instead “treated Mr. Floyd without respect and denied him the dignity owed to all human beings and which he certainly would have extended to a friend or neighbor.”
Relatives of Mr. Floyd expressed relief that Mr. Chauvin was facing prison, even as they said they believed he deserved a longer term. In the hearing, they described their anguish and loss in tearful terms. “Why?” said Terrence Floyd, Mr. Floyd’s brother. “What were you thinking? What was going through your head when you had your knee on my brother’s neck?”
Gianna Floyd, Mr. Floyd’s 7-year-old daughter, spoke in a prerecorded video, answering questions about her father. Asked what she would say to her father if she could, she said, “It would be I miss you and I love you.”
Mr. Chauvin, dressed in a gray suit and blue face mask and with a freshly shaven head, sat quietly through much of the proceedings. Offered an opportunity to address the courtroom, Mr. Chauvin spoke only briefly, saying that “additional legal matters at hand” prevented him from saying more. “But, very briefly though,” he said, “I do want to give my condolences to the Floyd family.”
