George Floyd killing: Last Minneapolis police officer sentenced to nearly five years
The last former Minneapolis police officer has been sentenced to nearly five years for his role in the killing of George Floyd in 2020.
Tou Thao, who held bystanders back as Derek Chauvin knelt on Mr Floyd‘s neck for nine-and-a-half minutes, has been sentenced to four years and nine months for aiding and abetting manslaughter.
Thao is the fourth and final officer sentenced in the killing of Mr Floyd, a black man, which sparked worldwide protests over police brutality and racism across the US.
Before sentencing, Thao insisted in court he “didn’t intend to try hurt anyone” and “did the best that I thought I could”.
“I was hoping for a little more remorse, regret, acknowledgment of some responsibility,” Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill said before handing the sentence.
In his 177-page ruling, the judge said Thao’s actions separated Chauvin and two other officers from the crowd, including an emergency medical technician, allowing his colleagues to continue restraining Mr Floyd and preventing bystanders from providing medical aid.
White officer Chauvin knelt on Mr Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes on 25 May 2020, as bystander video captured the 46-year-old yelling: “I can’t breathe”. Police had suspected Mr Floyd of using a counterfeit $20 bill at a nearby store.
Chauvin was convicted in June 2021 of state charges of murder and manslaughter and sentenced to 22-and-a-half years.
George Floyd was killed while under arrest in Minneapolis in May 2020
Thao had rejected a plea bargain saying it “would be lying” to plead guilty when he did not think he was in the wrong. Lawyers for Thao did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.
He was found guilty of one count of aiding and abetting manslaughter in the second degree for his role in Mr Floyd’s death in May.
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Video of George Floyd officer’s interrogation
The sentence will run concurrently with the three-and-a-half years Thao previously received on a federal conviction of violating Mr Floyd’s civil rights.
The other two officers at the scene, Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng, restrained Mr Floyd’s knees and buttocks while Chauvin knelt on his neck.
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From top left: J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao
Lane and Kueng pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Lane was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison while Kueng was sentenced to three years.
Last year, Chauvin received a concurrent sentence of 21 years in prison on federal charges of violating Mr Floyd’s civil rights.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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