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Derek Chauvin, in jail HANDOUT / AFP
Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing African-American George Floyd, was released on Wednesday after posting a $ 1 million bail (about 850,000 euros), according to court documents.
The Department of Corrections confirmed that the former police officer left the Oak Park Heights maximum security correctional facility, in the State of Minnesota.
Chauvin, 44, dug his knee for eight minutes and 46 seconds into the neck of Floyd, whose death sparked the largest wave of racial protests in the United States since the assassination of Martin Luther King.
Of the four former police officers charged in Floyd's murder, Chauvin was the only one remaining in jail awaiting trial, set for March 2021. He faces charges of murder and murder in the second degree.
The other three agents involved are accused of complicity.
A Hennepin County judge in Minnesota is still evaluating whether the four will be tried together.
Chauvin's record throughout the 19 years he worked for the Minneapolis Police Department is littered with incidents: in 2006 he shot and killed a man who allegedly had a gun;
in 2008 he did the same against a suspect of sexist violence;
and, in 2011, he opened fire on a man fleeing a shooting.
None of this prevented him from continuing in his post, until George Floyd's death.
The bail conditions prohibit Chauvin from leaving Minnesota.
Her former home in the Twin Cities suburbs was recently sold, so it's unclear where she will go and her family declined to comment.
It is also unknown where he got the million dollars to be released.
Chauvin and his ex-wife Kellie - who announced the divorce after Floyd's death - are charged with tax evasion.
Washington County prosecutors have claimed that the former officer failed to report or pay 2014 state taxes and did not report the more than $ 95,000 he earned working as a security guard in his off hours.
