George Floyd warned police he thought he would die because he couldn’t breathe, according to body camera transcripts - The Washington Post

MINNEAPOLIS — George Floyd repeatedly begged police officers not to shoot him and complained of being claustrophobic as they tried to place him in a squad car in the minutes before he was killed on a South Minneapolis street corner in May, according to transcripts of police body camera footage from the scene released Wednesday.

As one of the officers — Derek Chauvin — pressed a knee into his neck and held Floyd on the ground, he told Floyd that he must be okay because he was able to speak, saying that he was using up a lot of oxygen pleading for help.

“They going to kill me,” Floyd said as officers sat atop him in the street, according to the transcripts.

Lane, according to the transcripts, appeared to ask Chauvin — the most senior officer at the scene — whether they should reposition Floyd.

Chauvin, according to the transcripts, declined and opted to wait for emergency medical help to arrive, keeping his knee on Floyd’s neck well after he lost consciousness.

Chauvin, the white officer who was shown with his knee on Floyd’s neck, has been charged with second-degree murder, while the other three officers at the scene — Kueng, Lane and Tou Thao — have been charged with aiding and abetting murder.

Kueng and Lane were the first officers on the scene, and the transcripts show that a store clerk pointed them to where Floyd and two others sat in a parked car nearby.

As Lane asked him to step out of the car, Floyd apologized several times and repeatedly asked the officer not to shoot him.

Officer, before,” Floyd told Lane, the transcripts show.

The transcripts show Floyd continued to ask officers not to shoot him as he stepped from his vehicle and suggest he struggled with officers as they tried to handcuff him.

As Kueng walked Floyd across the street, Lane asked Hill about Floyd’s behavior.

Because you was not listening to anything we told you,” Kueng told him, according to the transcript.

Lane asked Floyd whether he was on drugs while Kueng pointed out the “foam” around his mouth.

According to the transcripts, the officers tried placing Floyd in the squad car, but he resisted, repeatedly telling them he was “claustrophobic” and had “anxiety.” He begged to be released from his handcuffs, promising he wouldn’t hurt anyone.

By then, Chauvin and Thao had arrived as Kueng and Lane were struggling to get Floyd in the car.

“Man, you’re going to die of a heart attack,” one of the officers told Floyd.

Chauvin asked whether Floyd was going to jail, and the officers pulled him from the car.

The officers restrained him on the ground — Lane at his feet, Kueng at his back and Chauvin at his head.

As the officers held Floyd to the ground, Chauvin asked the other officers whether Floyd was “high.” Kueng told him they’d found “a pipe on him.” Floyd again told the officers he couldn’t breathe.

You’re talking fine,” Kueng said, as Lane told him to take a “deep breath” and Chauvin told him to “relax.”.

Attorneys for Lane and Kueng, rookie officers who had been on the force for less than a week before Floyd’s death, have argued their clients were merely following orders from Chauvin, the senior officer at the scene, as they kept Floyd pinned to the ground even as he complained of struggling to breathe.

The transcripts show Lane asked Chauvin several times whether Floyd should be moved.

“Huh?” Chauvin replied, according to the transcript.

Lane jumped into the ambulance with medics and began performing chest compressions in an attempt to revive Floyd, who was by then in full cardiac arrest, according to the transcript of Lane’s body camera.

A medic quizzed Lane on whether Floyd had been fighting with the officers.