Police release bodycam footage they claim exonerates cop and shows George Floyd’s ‘buddies’detained

Authorities have released bodycam footage showing the Tuesday arrest of George Floyd before he was killed while being detained by four cops from the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD). 

The footage released Wednesday night by the Minneapolis Park Police aims to clear up that despite their patrol car being on the scene alongside an MPD vehicle, their responding officer had little interaction with Lloyd.

The nearly 20-minute-long video was shared as violent protests broke out in both Minneapolis and downtown Los Angeles, as outraged protesters called for an end to police brutality.

The Park Police footage first shows the MPD officers questioning Floyd as he sits on the ground, then it shows the bodycam-wearing cop from the other department watching over two passengers from the victim’s car.

But the video captured by a Minneapolis Park Police officer who responded to the scene doesn’t appear to provide much insight into how Floyd died in police custody. 

According to the police chief, that officer was 118 feet away from Floyd.

‘Based on a review of the body worn camera footage, which is being released to demonstrate the vantage point of the Park Police officer, the Park Police officer was not in a location to witness or intervene in the MPD incident,’ Park Police Chief Jason Ohotto said Wednesday. 

The clip shows one of the cops involved in the man’s death point the responding officer away from the immediate scene, asking him to supervise two other people. 

The officer then walks across the street and tells two passengers from Floyd’s vehicle not to interfere until the cops have completed their arrest. 

‘I don’t want you touching anything from the car,’ he states. 

Floyd died after white officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for a staggering eight minutes. 

Four Minneapolis Police Department who were involved in Monday’s incident have now been fired. The cop wearing the bodycam is from Minneapolis Park Police. The department’s role in the incident was brought into question because bystander footage showed one of their patrol cars.

In the new video, more of the scene around the incident is revealed. The Park Police officer takes a note from a police officer involved before returning to his vehicle to review it.

The information is concealed in an edit of the video. The officer then moves the car and exits the vehicle. 

Numerous police cars are seen flashing their lights and cars driving around the area slow near the site of Cup Foods at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue. 

The cop asks: ‘What are you guys taking out the car? Cigarettes? Personal items? Whose car is this?’ 

Much of the audio is silenced and identities of those involved and passerby are concealed. 

The cop continues to tell them to ‘stay put’. ‘I don’t want anyone near this car,’ he adds. 

‘Just stay put, alright, until my partners and them are done over there and they can figure things out,’ the responding officer reassures them. 

‘We’ll figure things out alright. Right now, we’re grabbing an ambulance for your buddy.’  

In the footage initially released from a witness, Floyd is seen begging Chauvin to stop and telling him he could not breathe before he lost consciousness and later died.

Officers arrested him for allegedly trying to use forged documents at a local deli. 

The FBI and state law enforcement authorities have launched an investigation into the man’s death.  

Authorities claimed Tuesday that Floyd had resisted arrest by cops, however footage from the scene has cast doubt on the version of events as it appears to show the 46-year-old father-of-two cooperating with officers as he is manhandled out of his vehicle.

A release from the MFD report sheds more light on Monday’s shocking events, detailing that fire crew were called to assist medics with a man – called ‘pt’ in the report – who had trauma to his mouth.

It states that Fire Station 17 of Minneapolis arrived at the scene outside the Cup Foods store to find ‘multiple squads on scene and small crowd of citizens’.

The report points to confusion at the scene as neither the cops nor bystanders gave information to medics on Floyd or his location.

It says that while the crew tried to find Floyd to give medical support, they overheard and were told by ‘several people that the police ‘had killed the man”.

The report adds that the bystanders were ‘upset but not unruly’.

Crew members were finally able to find a cop inside the store who told them medics had put Floyd in an ambulance and left the scene.

Crew members were also told by an off-duty firefighter who witnessed the end of the struggle that they had seen Floyd become unresponsive on the ground while handcuffed and subdued by cops.

Medics then called for assistance and the crew responded to the ambulance which had moved to 36th and Park Avenue.

Two crew members got into the ambulance where they found ‘an unresponsive, pulseless male’, the report states.

According to the report, medics never managed to recover a pulse on route to the hospital and Floyd’s ‘condition did not change’. 

It is not yet clear if Floyd ever regained a pulse after he went limp and passed out under the knee of the cop while he gasped for breathe and begged him to stop.

Thousands of defiant protesters took to the streets to demand justice for Floyd, carrying placards reading ‘I can’t breathe’ and ‘Justice 4 Floyd’.

The victim’s family’s lawyer Ben Crump issued a statement urging protesters to act peacefully on Wednesday night and to not ‘sink to the level of our oppressors’.

‘The community is understandably and rightfully upset by the wrongful death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, and their grief and outrage are pouring out onto the streets of Minneapolis. We share these painful emotions and demand justice, but we also urge everyone who wishes to raise their voice to engage in peaceful protests and observe social distancing,’

‘We cannot sink to the level of our oppressors, and we must not endanger others during this pandemic. We will demand and ultimately force lasting change by shining a light on treatment that is horrific and unacceptable and by winning justice.’