Minneapolis Police Chief: All Involved Officers ‘Complicit’ In George Floyd’s Death

All of the officers involved in the arrest of George Floyd were “complicit” in his death, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said Sunday.

Floyd died after a police officer arresting him for allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes on May 25. Videos shot by bystanders show white Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck, even as Floyd, who was black, repeatedly said he could not breathe. Several other police officers are seen nearby in the video, but none took action.

“Silence and inaction, you’re complicit. If there was one solitary voice that would have intervened … that’s what I would have hoped for,” Chief Arradondo said on CNN. “So I don’t see a level of distinction any different. Mr. Floyd died in our hands, and so I see that as being complicit. Being silent or not intervening, to me, you’re complicit,” he said.

Arradondo fired all four of the officers involved in the incident just a day after footage surfaced of Floyd’s ultimately fatal arrest. Chauvin was arrested four days later and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. So far, none of the other officers at the scene have been charged.

The police chief said he fired the officers because the video showed their actions were wrong.

“There are absolute truths in life. We need air to breath. The killing of Mr. Floyd was an absolute truth that it was wrong,” he said. “I did not need days or weeks or months or processes or bureaucracies to tell me what occurred out here last Monday was wrong.”

Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, said Arradondo should charge the other officers.

“They have enough evidence to fire them, so they have enough evidence to arrest them,” Philonise said on CNN, as noted by The Hill. “I need him to do it. Black lives matter.”

In a separate interview Sunday night on CNN, another police chief from Floyd’s hometown stood in solidarity. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told CNN he wants his department to escort Floyd’s body “back home” and said he is “hopeful that we have reached a watershed moment here and we will see some meaningful reform in terms of the way that we deal with bad police officers and the way we deal with police officers involved in criminal conduct that completely undermines the good work of the vast majority of police officers.”

In response to Floyd’s death protests and riots have broken out across the country, including the nation’s capital, where rioters converged on the White House, at one point Friday prompting Secret Service to rush President Trump to a bunker and, late Sunday, reportedly injuring dozens of Secret Service agents and damaging historic sites.