The original press release from the Minneapolis Police Department about George Floyd’s murder was a lie.
By the police account, the murder was not even an act of killing. Under the title “Man Dies After Medical Incident During Police Interaction,” the release claimed that Floyd had resisted arrest and then suffered “medical distress” after being cuffed. That is a drastically reduced description of what actually occurred when Derek Chauvin murdered Floyd. Nowhere does the release mention that the medical distress was brought on by Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds—as Floyd experienced seizures and cried out for help, in front of multiple eyewitnesses. In video footage of the arrest, Floyd’s only visible resistance to the officers is his falling to his knees and saying he’s claustrophobic.