A former Minneapolis police officer involved in George Floyd’s arrest told investigators that he was focused on crowd control and minimized his role in the actions before Floyd’s death, video of the interview shows.
Tou Thao, one of four former officers charged in Floyd’s death, described himself as a “human traffic cone” as he held back onlookers who became increasingly horrified at the police officers’ actions, the Star Tribune reported, citing video that was released Friday. Floyd, a handcuffed black man, died after an officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes on May 25 as Floyd repeatedly said he could not breathe.
