Ex-policeman Derek Chauvin is not only being retried in federal courts for the murder of African-American George Floyd, he is also responding in another case, in which he is accused of violating human rights. 'a 14 year old teenager.
The similarities are disturbing.
According to the federal indictment, in September 2017, Derek Chauvin, then a police officer in Minneapolis, and another police officer intervened at the home of a woman who had called for help. She claimed that her daughter and son assaulted her during an argument over a cell phone charger.
"Without legal justification, he took the teenager by the throat and repeatedly hit him on the head with a torch," then "he kept his knee on the neck and upper back of the lying teenager. face down, handcuffed and offering no resistance, ”it is written.
Prosecutors note that Chauvin hit the boy just eight seconds after grabbing him in an attempt to handcuff him, and repeated the blow two seconds later by grabbing him by the throat and clubbing him "again" in the head with his handcuff. flash light.
The teenager had cried out in pain and called for his mother.
Chauvin always on him when help arrives
Video from the policeman's body camera shows Chauvin asking his colleague to use an electric pulse pistol, which he does not have.
Chauvin then used a neckband, causing the boy to pass unconscious and then fall to the ground, where he was handcuffed face down.
Chauvin then placed his knees on the neck and back of the lifeless boy.
He remained in this position for 17 minutes.
Coming to himself, the teenager said he could not breathe.
On May 25, 2020, the 9 and a half minutes that Chauvin had spent in this crippling posture, now banned in Minneapolis, had caused the death by suffocation of George Floyd.
In his arrest report, Chauvin wrote that the teenager was lying on the floor in a bedroom, and that he had ignored his "verbal orders" to obey his orders.
As the boy was "approximately" 6 feet tall and weighed "at least 120 kg", he gave him "a few taps" on the shoulders before using a "neck restraint" and "body weight" to control him.
The boy was bleeding from his ear when the paramedics arrived, Chauvin still hanging over him.
He was briefly hospitalized and received two stitches before being taken to detention.
Present at the hearing Thursday, the boy, now 18, refused to speak to the press.
Derek Chauvin, who is serving a 22-and-a-half-year sentence for the murder of George Floyd, has pleaded not guilty. He also never admitted his wrongs in the death of George Floyd, assuring to have followed the procedures in force in the police force to control a recalcitrant suspect.
