Tou Thao, Former Officer Found Guilty in George Floyd’s Killing

Tou Thao was found guilty on May 2020 in Minnesota for assisting with the killing of George Floyd.

On May 20th, George Floyd passed away because Minnesota police officers pinned him down to the ground for over

nine minutes, leaving Mr. Floyd unable to breathe. Many people at the time of this event’s occurrence had stated

that it was police brutality. Adding onto this, saying that those 4 officers who took part in the killing of George Floyd should be put in prison.

This is part of a case involving four different police officers during the killing of George Floyd on May 25th, 2020, at 38th Street & Chicago Ave playing a distinct part each.   The Judge had declared from all officers, including Tou Thao, that it was an act of police brutality.

In the case of Tou Thao, Judge Peter Cahill stated in his written ruling that Thao’s actions during the event were “objectively unreasonable” as Floyd was pinned by multiple officers. Thao was stated to have been part of the crowd control at the time, preventing anyone from getting involved physically, and possibly saving George Floyd’s life.

“In this case, the evidence overwhelmingly proves that Tou Thao aided and abetted manslaughter in the second degree on May 25, 2020,” the judge wrote.

“Thao knew his three fellow officers were on top of Floyd, restraining Floyd in the prone position with knees forcefully and unrelentingly pinning down his neck, his middle back, and his lower back and with arms also restraining Floyd’s legs and his handcuffed arms (held behind his back while he was in the prone position). Thao knew that this prone restraint was extremely dangerous because it can cause asphyxia — the inability to breathe — the exact condition Floyd repeatedly told the officers he was suffering. Yet Thao made the conscious decision to aid that dangerous restraint: He actively encouraged the other three officers and assisted their crime by holding back concerned bystanders, declining to render medical aid to Floyd, not instructing any of the other three officers to render medical aid to Floyd, and not permitting any of the bystanders to render medical aid to Floyd, including the off-duty Minneapolis firefighter on the scene trained in CPR.”

Adding onto this, Tuo Thao had a previous trial last year about the same tragic event. In this case,  Thao stated that he thought that the other officers on the scene were “taking care” of him when his role had switched to crowd & traffic control. When prosecutors had asked him why he didn’t tell Derek Chauvin to get off of Mr. Floyd’s neck, he stated: “I think I would trust a 19-year-old veteran to figure it out.”

Although, Thao had requested the judge for a bench trial, meaning that a judge would determine his innocence or guilt, rather than a jury making the decision. Furthermore, the defense and the prosecution agreed on specified evidence from the trial of Thao, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng. Thao remains in custody, until his sentencing on the 7th of August.

Thao could most likely be sentenced to prison for 41 to 57 months, with the recommended prison time for Thao being four years.