Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao has been convicted of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd, according to MPR News.
Thao, 37, was reportedly the officer who pushed bystanders back as his colleague Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes on May 25, 2020.
Floyd died despite begging officers to let him up and repeatedly yelling, “I can’t breathe.”
Judge Peter Cahill said in his verdict that Thao “actively encouraged his three colleagues’ dangerous prone restraint of Floyd,” per CNN.
“Like the bystanders, Thao could see Floyd’s life slowly ebbing away as the restraint continued. Yet, Thao made a conscious decision to actively participate in Floyd’s death: he held back the concerned bystander and even prevented an off-duty Minneapolis firefighter from rendering the medical aid Floyd so desperately needed.”
All four former police officers have also been convicted in federal court for violating Floyd’s civil rights and sentenced to between two and a half and three and a half years. Chauvin was sentenced to more than 20 years.
They’ll serve the state and federal sentences at the same time in federal facilities.
