Former US police officer Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of African-American man George Floyd in a case that laid bare the deep racial divisions in the US.
Chauvin had pleaded not guilty to three charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Three other former police officers – Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng – also face charges in connection with Mr Floyd’s death.They are to be tried separately later in the year.
A jury of seven women and five men in the midwestern city of Minneapolis took less than two days at the end of a three-week trial to find the white officer guilty in unanimous decisions on all three charges he faced. Chauvin, 45, could be handed decades behind bars for Mr Floyd’s killing on 25 May last year. Mr Floyd’s death sparked protests against racial injustice around the world and is being seen as a landmark test of police accountability.
In an arrest captured on video, Mr Chauvin pushed his knee into the neck of Mr Floyd, who was handcuffed, for more than nine minutes outside the grocery shop where Mr Floyd had been accused of buying cigarettes with a fake $20 note. The judge ordered that he be taken into custody immediately.
US President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris spoke after the verdict with President Biden calling on Congress to act swiftly to address policing reform, including by approving a bill named for Mr Floyd. Beyond that, the president said, the entire country must confront hatred to “change hearts and minds as well as laws and policies”.
