These are the four police officers charged over the death of unarmed and handcuffed black man George Floyd.
Protests and riots have broken out in cities across the US after video footage emerged of Derek Chauvin kneeling on the father’s neck for nearly nine minutes as he repeatedly cried ‘I can’t breathe’ on May 25.
The fired Minneapolis police officer was arrested on Friday and charged with third degree murder but many demonstrators said this didn’t go far enough. They called for a more serious indictment and for the three other officers to be arrested.
Yesterday the charge was upgraded to second degree murder, and colleagues Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J Alexander Kueng were taken into custody and charged with aiding and abetting second degree murder and second degree manslaughter.
If convicted they could be each be sentenced to up to four decades in prison. The new second-degree murder charge alleges that Chauvin caused Mr Floyd’s death without intent while committing another felony, namely third-degree assault.
