4 Minneapolis police officers identified in death of George Floyd

MINNEAPOLIS --The Minneapolis Police Department has identified the four police officers who were fired following the death of George Floyd in police custody Monday night. 

The four officers are Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng.

Floyd, 46, died at the hospital after he was detained by Minneapolis police officers near the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue South Monday night. A video taken by a bystander showed one of the officers, now identified as Chauvin, pinning Floyd to the ground and pressing his knee into his neck as Floyd repeatedly says, “I can’t breathe.”

After Floyd loses consciousness, Chauvin continues to press on his neck. None of the other officers on the scene attempted to check Floyd’s pulse until the ambulance arrived, despite bystanders’ pleas. Floyd later died at Hennepin County Medical Center.

On Wednesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called on Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to file criminal charges against the arresting officer in Floyd’s death.

“I’ve wrestled, more than anything else over the last 36 hours, with one fundamental question: Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail?" Frey said in his opening statement. "If you had done it or I had done it, we would be behind bars right now. I cannot come up with a good answer to that question.”