One of two former Minneapolis police officers charged with aiding and abetting the killing of George Floyd, the Black man whose violent death prompted street protests around the world, has pleaded guilty as part of an agreement with prosecutors hours before jury selection in his trial was to start.
J Alexander Kueng pleaded guilty on Monday to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s killing. As part of the deal, Keung will serve 3.5 years in prison to run concurrently with a previous three-year sentence he was given in a federal trial, though a more serious charge of aiding and abetting second-degree murder will now be dropped.
The second officer, Tou Thao, has rejected a plea deal and will continue to trial. He told a judge in August that pleading guilty would be a “lie and a sin”.
Floyd, 46, was murdered on 25 May 2020 after the Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes as he was handcuffed and pinned to the ground. The victim exclaimed repeatedly during that time that he could not breathe.
The killing, caught on a bystander’s phone camera, caused widespread shock and revulsion and triggered a summer of protests across the US and in several countries around the world. Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced in June 2021 to 22.5 years in prison.
He later pleaded guilty to a federal charge that he had violated Floyd’s civil rights and is serving 21 years concurrently for that in a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona.
While Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck, a group of other police officers participated in aspects of the botched arrest. Kueng, who is Black, knelt on Floyd’s back, and in his plea deal admitted that he knew from his training that doing so was dangerous and unreasonable.
Thao, a Hmong American, acted as a human barricade between bystanders who questioned the police action and Floyd lying on the ground. In February, he was convicted of federal charges that he violated Floyd’s civil rights by depriving him of medical care and failing to try to stop Chauvin’s killing him.
Another police officer, Thomas Lane, who is white, restrained Floyd on the ground by his legs. He was also found guilty of the federal charges and pleaded guilty in state court in May.
Lane has been sentenced to three years for aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter and 2.5 years for violating Floyd’s civil rights. The sentences are running concurrently.
As part of the trial scheduled on Monday, Thao has rejected a verdict from a jury. Instead, he has opted for the judge Peter Cahill to decide his fate based on evidence presented by his defense lawyers and by prosecutors.
If he is found guilty of aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder he could face a sentence of up to 12.5 years in prison.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
