(Reuters) – Four Minneapolis police officers were fired yesterday over the death of an unarmed black man seen on a bystander’s video lying face down in the street, gasping for air and groaning, “I can’t breathe,” while a white officer kneels on his neck for several minutes.
Mayor Jacob Frey announced the officers’ dismissal on Twitter, saying, “This is the right call.”
At a news conference earlier in the day, Frey said it was clear the death of the man, later identified as George Floyd, was unjustified, and he acknowledged that race was a factor in Monday evening’s fatal encounter.
The case was eerily reminiscent of the 2014 killing of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man in New York City, who died after being put in a police chokehold and telling the officers, “I can’t breathe.”
The Minneapolis police chief, Medaria Arradondo, told the news conference that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had opened an inquiry into the incident at his request.
“Being black in America should not be a death sentence,” the mayor said. “For five minutes we watched as a white police officer pressed his knee into the neck of a black man. For five minutes. When you hear someone calling for help, you are supposed to help.”
The officers involved were responding to a report of a forgery in progress, and found a man fitting the suspect’s description, Floyd, aged in his 40s, in a car, according to a police department account.
After Floyd exited the vehicle, the department said, a physical altercation between the officers and Floyd ensued. When they handcuffed Floyd, he appeared to be in medical distress, according to police.
