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15-04-2023
MINNEAPOLIS: Minneapolis has agreed to pay nearly $9m (£7.2m) to settle lawsuits filed by two black residents against Derek Chauvin.
Both residents, who were arrested in 2017, said Chauvin had pressed his knee into their necks, the same tactic that killed George Floyd three years later.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey apologized to all the victims.
He said if supervisors had fired Chauvin six years ago, Floyd would be alive.
Minneapolis City Council announced during a meeting that John Pope Jr would receive $7.5m and Zoya Code would get $1.375m (£1m).
Both lawsuits alleged police misconduct, excessive force and racism by Chauvin and other officers.
Charges against both residents, one of whom was 14 at the time of his arrest, were eventually dropped.
Police Chief Brian O’Hara told a press conference on Thursday that Chauvin was “a national embarrassment” to police.
O’Hara said that while the department typically recycles officer badges, Chauvin’s badge will be destroyed and his badge number 1087 permanently removed from their system.
Pope was arrested when Chauvin responded to a domestic assault report.
His lawsuit says his drunk mother called police after arguing with Pope and his teenage sister for leaving their mobile phones plugged in.
It goes on to say that Chauvin struck Pope in the head with a metal torch four times and kept him in a prone position.
No other officers on the scene intervened.
The lawsuit by Code says Chauvin pinned his knee to her neck for four minutes and 41 seconds as she was arrested in June 2017 for allegedly trying to strangle her mother.
Minneapolis paid the Floyd family $27m in 2021 after reaching a settlement.
Chauvin is currently serving 22 years in prison for murdering Floyd and violating his civil rights after kneeling on his neck area for nine and a half minutes.
In April 2021, a US jury has found a former police officer guilty of murder over the death of African-American George Floyd on a Minneapolis street last year.
Derek Chauvin, 45, was filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes during his arrest last May.
The widely watched footage sparked worldwide protests against racism and excessive use of force by police.
Chauvin was found guilty on three charges: second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter.
His bail was immediately revoked and he was placed in custody. Sentencing is likely to happen in two months, and Chauvin could spend decades in jail.
In Minnesota, second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. Third-degree murder is punishable by up to 25 years in prison. Second-degree manslaughter is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Chauvin is expected to appeal against the verdict.
Police officers have rarely been convicted – if they are charged at all – for deaths that occur in custody, and the verdict in this trial has been widely seen as an indication of how the US legal system will treat such cases in future.
Three other officers are due to face trial later this year on aiding-and-abetting charges. The 12-member jury took less than a day to reach their verdict, which followed a highly-charged, three-week trial that left Minneapolis on edge.
Several hundred people cheered outside the court as the verdict was announced.
The Floyd family’s lawyer, Ben Crump, said it marked a “turning point in history” for the US. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
