Prosecutors: the officer kneed Floyd by 7:46, a 1-minute error that should not impact the criminal process
Floyd died on May 25. He had been handcuffed and begged that he couldn’t breathe, but Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck even after he stopped moving and talking.
Chauvin is accused of manslaughter and manslaughter. Three other police officers – Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao – are accused of assisting and inciting manslaughter and manslaughter and are due to be tried in August.
The narrative of the initial complaint filed on May 29 by the Hennepin County Prosecutor’s Office says that Chauvin held his knee to Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. But the time stamps mentioned in that billing document indicate that it was actually 7 minutes and 46 seconds.
The Associated Press began asking about the error the day after the initial charges were made, but prosecutors repeatedly refused to address it. The 8:46 detail was repeated in an amended complaint filed a few days later by the Attorney General’s Office.
In the weeks following Floyd’s death, some protesters staged 8-minute, 46-second die-ins, some lawmakers knelt for that length of time in the U.S. Senate, and the mourners at a memorial service for Floyd remained. in silence by 8:46 to reflect on the final moments of your life.
In mid-June, prosecutors acknowledged the one-minute error, but said it would have no impact on the case.
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Documents submitted by prosecutors in September and October changed the schedule once again. These documents contain the most detailed image of what happened, citing Lane, Keung’s time stamps and videos from Thao’s body camera.
The documents do not list the exact time when Chauvin started to kneel on Floyd, but they do provide a narrative of when Floyd was first pressed to the ground. The time stamps on the video from Lane’s body camera – recorded in the format of a 24-hour clock – show that it started somewhere between 20:19:14 and 20:19:45, that is, 14 to 45 seconds after 20:19
But the documents cite a clear moment when Chauvin removed his knee, when a stretcher was ready to take Floyd away. The date and time on Lane’s body camera marked 20:28:45.
This means that Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck for at least nine minutes, but possibly for up to 9 minutes and 31 seconds. Documents filed by prosecutors characterize the time as “approximately nine minutes”, although in at least one document it is characterized as “more than nine minutes and twenty seconds”.
Stiles, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, said the length of Chauvin’s restraint would be presented as evidence at the trial. He declined further comments.
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Tom Heffelfinger, a former United States attorney from Minnesota who is not connected to this case, said that it is normal for prosecutors to adjust the details while building a case and that the extent of the Chauvin constraint will not become essential until a prosecutor present it to the jury.
But at the trial, he said, the timing will become extremely relevant, as both sides argue over the cause of Floyd’s death. Heffelfinger also said that this points to Chauvin’s state of mind and can be used by prosecutors to show obstinacy, and that Chauvin had Floyd under his control and held his position for a long time.
“You can see in the viewer’s video that Chauvin kept Floyd under control throughout that period,” said Heffelfinger. “He didn’t need a knee to the neck to maintain this … control.”