Chauvin was ready to plead for a third-degree murder

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was prepared to plead guilty to third degree murder in the death of George Floyd before then-Attorney General William Barr personally blocked the deal last year, officials said.

The deal would have avoided any potential federal charges, including a civil rights offense, as part of an effort to quickly resolve the case to prevent further protests after protests and riots damaged a strip of southern Minneapolis, according to two police officers with direct knowledge of conversations. The officials spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the negotiations.

Barr rejected the deal in part because he felt it was too early, as the investigation into Floyd’s death was still in its infancy, officials said.

The fact that Chauvin was in confession talks has been reported previously, and those talks seem to have delayed a May 28 press conference convened by the United States attorney in Minneapolis for nearly two hours as they went on. But the detail about Chauvin agreeing to plead guilty to a specific charge is new and was first reported on Wednesday by The New York Times.

Floyd, a black man who was handcuffed at the time, died on May 25 after the white officer knelt on his neck for a few minutes, while Floyd shouted that he could not breathe. The widely viewed video of spectators sparked protests in the city, including violence, arson and theft, and quickly spread across the country.

Chauvin was fired shortly after Floyd’s death. He is scheduled for trial on March 8 on charges of second-degree murder and wrongful death. Three other officers present at the scene, also fired, are due to be tried later this year.

Tom Kelly, Chauvin’s lawyer at the time of the confession negotiations, said on Thursday that he could not discuss the case. Chauvin is now represented by Eric Nelson, who declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the US attorney’s office declined to comment.

Separately, the judge in charge of the Chauvin case on Thursday rejected a request from the prosecution to reinstate a third-degree murder charge.

Prosecutors argued that a recent Minnesota Court of Appeals decision upholding a third-degree murder conviction for Mohamed Noor, a Minneapolis officer sentenced in the shooting death in 2017 of an unarmed 911 caller, an established precedent that supported reinstatement. Judge Peter Cahill ruled that Noor’s decision will not have precedent until it is processed in the state Supreme Court.

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Associated Press writer Mike Balsamo contributed from Washington.