Ex-Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd's death transported to Oak Parks Heights prison
Derek Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in connection to the death of George Floyd. (Hennepin County Jail)
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The former Minneapolis police officer who has been charged in the death of George Floyd is now in custody at the Oak Park Heights prison, according to Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell.
Chauvin is being held in segregation outside the general population at the state's Oak Park Heights maximum security prison, a Minnesota Department of Corrections spokesman confirms to FOX 9.
When he was first taken into custody, he was booked at the Ramsey County Jail. Sunday around 2:42 pm, authorities transported Chauvin to Hennepin County Jail. Online jail records show he was released from the jail to other state authorities at 8:48 p.m. Schnell said he was later taken to the prison. He said such transfers are "not uncommon" on high-profile subjects. Oak Park Heights is the same prison where former Minneapolis officer Mohamed Noor was moved after being arrested for murder.
Chauvin is charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for Floyd's death. Chauvin and the three other Minneapolis police officers, Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, were fired following the incident.
According to the charges, Lane and Kueng responded to the initial 911 call from Cup Foods about a customer using counterfeit currency. They located Floyd in a nearby vehicle and, after some resistance, removed him from the vehicle and handcuffed him.
Chauvin and Thao eventually arrived on the scene. The officers made several attempts to get Floyd into the squad car, but he resisted.
The charges say Floyd began saying and repeated that he could not breathe while he was still standing outside the squad car.
Chauvin pulled Floyd out of the squad car and he went down on the ground, still handcuffed. Kueng held his back and Lane held his legs while Chauvin pressed his knee onto Floyd’s neck.
Floyd told the officers “I can’t breathe” multiple times and repeated “mama” and “please,” but the officers did not move from their positions.
At one point, Lane asks, “Should we roll him on his side?” and Chauvin says no. The body camera video shows Floyd eventually appear to stop breathing or speaking. Kueng checked his pulse and found none, but none of the officers moved until the ambulance arrived a few minutes later.
Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck for a total of eight minutes and 46 seconds, including for two minutes and 43 seconds after Floyd was non-responsive, the charges say.
The full report from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner is pending, but preliminary findings from Floyd’s autopsy revealed he likely died from a combination of underlying health conditions, being restrained by police, and any potential intoxicants in his system, according to the charges. There was no physical evidence that he died of asphyxia of strangulation.
“Police are trained that this type of restraint with a subject in a prone position is inherently dangerous,” the charges say.
Floyd's underlying health conditions included coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease.