MINNEAPOLIS _ Body-worn camera footage from former Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane, who is charged in the killing George Floyd, showed that Floyd was given no explanation for why he was being questioned before Lane pointed a gun at him, swore at him, physically touched him multiple times, and forced him out of his vehicle into the street.
The courts made footage captured by Lane and former colleague J. Alexander Kueng publicly viewable Wednesday by appointment. Sixty-six spaces were made available at one-hour increments to watch the videos that totaled about an hour and four minutes long.
The Star Tribune was able to view about 30 minutes of Lane's video and the first few minutes of Kueng's video at the time of this article's online publication. Lane's video also showed that medics who arrived at the scene did not appear alarmed or rushed in assisting Floyd after taking his pulse, and that about three minutes passed after their arrival before anyone began performing CPR on Floyd, who had been unresponsive for several minutes by then.
Lane's attorney, Earl Gray, filed the two videos in court last week along with a motion to dismiss the charges against his client, whom he has argued was a rookie working at the direction of 19-year veteran, Derek Chauvin.
Lane twice asked about flipping Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, from his stomach onto his back after Floyd complained multiple times that he couldn't breathe, and later boarded an ambulance and performed CPR on Floyd, Gray has argued.
But Lane's bodycam video showed that as the first officer to engage with Floyd on May 25, he did not inform Floyd that he was being investigated for allegedly using a fake $20 bill, that he pointed his gun at Floyd, swore at him multiple times while Floyd repeatedly said "please" and asked what was going on, reached his hands into Floyd's car and touched him multiple times and forced Floyd out of the vehicle.
Lane and his partner, Kueng, were the first to arrive at the Cup Foods on Chicago Avenue and E. 38th St. and encounter Floyd and his two companions sitting in minivan parked nearby. Kueng assisted Lane in handcuffing Floyd.
Chauvin and his partner, Tou Thao, arrived later to assist.
About 11 minutes into Lane's video, Lane grabbed Floyd's leg and helped Chauvin and Kueng flip Floyd from his back onto his stomach in the street.
The bodycam video and video recorded by a bystander showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly 8 minutes while he said he couldn't breathe, called out for his "mama" several times and warned the officers he was going to die. Bystanders also pleaded with the officers and yelled for them to stop.
Kueng knelt on Floyd's back while Lane held onto his legs. Thao managed bystanders at the scene and dismissed their concerns.
Lane's video showed that he asked twice about rolling Floyd onto his side, but did not appear to express any sense of urgency, fear or persistence in his voice.
An ambulance arrived about 20 minutes after Lane first arrived at the scene and spoke to a store manager, who was seen in Kueng's video carrying an apparent gun tucked into the waistband of his shorts.
A first responder took Floyd's pulse at his neck and walked away without a sense of urgency. Ambulance staff loaded Floyd into the ambulance. Lane boarded the ambulance as well.
About three minutes after the ambulance first arrived at the scene, Lane began performing CPR on Floyd at the instruction of a first responder.
Chauvin is charged with one count each of second-degree murder, third-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter. The other three are charged with aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.
