The Minneapolis Police Department on Monday released an audio recording of a dispatcher who watched via surveillance cameras the arrest of George Floyd and shared their concerns with a supervisor.
Floyd, an unarmed black man, died after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, placed his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. The dispatcher's call was made at 8:30 p.m. on May 25, about the time Floyd was in an ambulance on his way to a hospital. The dispatcher told their supervisor, "I don't know, you can call me a snitch if you want to, but we have the cameras up for 320's call and ... I don't know if they had to use force or not, but they got something out of the back of the squad, and all of them sat on this man, so I don't know if they needed you or not, but they haven't said anything to me yet."
The Minneapolis Police Department also released the transcripts of two 911 calls made in the wake of Floyd's death. One call was made by an unidentified bystander, who said a police officer "pretty much just killed this guy that wasn't resisting arrest." The other caller was an off-duty firefighter, who said he "literally watched police officers not take a pulse and not do anything to save a man, and I am a first responder myself, and I literally have it on video camera ... I just happened to be on a walk ... they [expletive] killed him." The transcript noted the 911 dispatcher attempted to transfer him to a supervisor, but the call was disconnected.
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