‘I can’t breathe’: agonising words of black man George Floyd, who died after white US policeman knelt on his neck for five minutes
- Video of handcuffed black man who died after a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck sparks fresh furor in the US
- Minneapolis mayor fired four police officers following the death in custody of George Floyd
Four Minneapolis police officers were fired on Tuesday over the death of an unarmed black man seen in a video lying face down in the street, gasping for air and groaning: “I can’t breathe,” while a white officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.
Hours after the officers’ dismissals were announced, thousands of protesters filled the streets around the scene of Monday evening’s deadly incident in a boisterous but peaceful rally. Many in the crowd wore facial coverings to protect against spread of the coronavirus.
But the gathering took an unruly turn around dusk as police in riot gear fired tear gas and non-lethal beanbag rounds into the crowds while protesters hurled water bottles and other projectiles, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.
The day began with Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo telling reporters that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had opened an inquiry at his request into the fatal arrest caught on video the night before.
Mayor Jacob Frey said at the same news briefing that regardless of the investigation’s outcome, it was clear the death of the man in custody, later identified as George Floyd, was unjustified, and that race was a factor.
Warning: this video contains disturbing scenes
“Being black in America should not be a death sentence,” the mayor said. “For five minutes we watched as a white police officer pressed his knee into the neck of a black man. For five minutes. When you hear someone calling for help, you are supposed to help.”
The mayor later announced the termination of four officers on Twitter, saying: “This is the right call”.
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”.
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The case was eerily reminiscent of the 2014 killing of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man in New York City, who died after being put in a police chokehold and telling the officers: “I can’t breathe”.
The officers involved in Monday’s encounter were responding to a report of a forgery in progress, and found a man fitting the suspect’s description, Floyd, aged in his 40s, in a car, according to a police department account.
Being black in America should not be a death sentence
After Floyd got out of the car, the department said, there was a physical altercation between the officers and Floyd. Floyd was handcuffed, and he appeared to be in medical distress, according to police.
Mobile phone footage taken by an onlooker does not show what precipitated the confrontation. It opens with Floyd lying beside the rear wheel of a vehicle, with a white officer pinning him to the street by pressing a knee into Floyd’s neck.
Floyd can be heard repeatedly moaning and gasping while he pleads: “Please, I can’t breathe, please, man,” as bystanders gather around, growing increasingly agitated and shouting at police to let him up. After several minutes, Floyd gradually grows quiet and ceases to move.
An ambulance took the suspect to the hospital, where he died a short time later, police said. No weapons were involved, and no officers were hurt in the incident, according to police.
In the case of Garner, he was placed in a banned chokehold by a white police officer trying to arrest him for illegally selling loose cigarettes on the street.
Garner’s dying words: “I can’t breathe,” became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement calling attention to a wave of African-Americans and other minorities who died at the hands of police using unjustified lethal force.
Lawyer Benjamin Crump, retained by Floyd’s family, said in a statement that officers’ “abusive, excessive and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained by the police for questioning about a non-violent charge.”
Floyd’s death comes on the heels of two other deaths of African-Americans that involved police wrongdoing.
On March 13 in Louisville, three white Kentucky policemen forced their way into the home of a black woman, Breonna Taylor, and shot her in a drug investigation.
And police and prosecutors in Brunswick, Georgia allegedly covered up the killing of a young black jogger by the son of a retired investigator for local law enforcement.
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The police allegedly withheld for two months a video showing Ahmaud Arbery, 25, being followed and then shot with a shotgun in broad daylight.
The families of Arbery and Taylor are also being represented by Crump.
The he American Civil Liberties Union said the Minneapolis case showed that US police continue to use harsh treatment on African Americans accused of minor charges.
“This tragic video shows how little meaningful change has emerged to prevent police from taking the lives of black people,” said ACLU policing specialist Paige Fernandez.
“Even in places like Minneapolis, where chokeholds are technically banned, black people are targeted by the police for low-level offences and are subjected to unreasonable, unnecessary violence,” she said.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse and Associated Press
