A former Minneapolis police officer who held back the crowd during George Floyd's murder was convicted Monday on state charges of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter for his role in the killing.
Tou Thao's actions "were objectively unreasonable from the perspective of a reasonable police officer, when viewed under the totality of the circumstances," Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill wrote in his verdict. Thao was the last of four former police officers facing criminal charges in the May 2020 death of Floyd, who died after former officer Derek Chauvin pinned him to the ground and knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. In an eyewitness video, Thao can be seen holding back a crowd of concerned bystanders as Floyd repeatedly says, "I can't breathe."
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