Chauvin, who was fired, said through his lawyer that the way he handled Floyd’s arrest was a reasonable use of authorized force. But he was the target of at least 22 complaints or internal investigations during his more than 19 years in the department, of which only one resulted in punishment. These new interviews show not only that he may have used excessive force in the past, but that he used surprisingly similar techniques.
All four people who told of their meetings with Mr. Chauvin had a history of disagreements with the police, mainly for traffic and non-violent crimes.
Ms. Code’s arrest took place on June 25, 2017. In a court case, Mr. Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric J. Nelson, said the policeman acted correctly in the case, responding to “a violent crime in a volatile situation. “. He said that “there was nothing irrational or unauthorized in Mr. Chauvin’s actions”.
Code’s mother accused her of trying to strangle her with an extension cord, according to the prison report. Mrs. Code said in an interview that her mother was spinning the cable and that she simply grabbed it.
She said that she left the house to freshen up after the fight and when she returned, Mr. Chauvin and his partner had arrived. In the prosecutors’ description, based on Chauvin’s report and video from the body camera, Chauvin told Ms. Code that she was trapped and grabbed her arm. When she pulled away, he pulled her face down and knelt on top of her. The two policemen then picked her up and carried her out of the house, face down.
There, prosecutors said, Chauvin knelt on the handcuffed woman’s back, “although she was not offering physical resistance.”
Ms. Code, in an interview, said she started to plead: “Don’t kill me”.
At that point, according to prosecutors’ reports, Chauvin told his partner to restrain Ms. Code’s ankles as well, although she “was not being physically aggressive”.