This morning I watched the full body camera videos for former officers Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng. I will try to update in this thread what the body cameras show that you are unable to see in the Facebook video and other available surveillance videos
Lane taps on the window of George Floyd's car with his flashlight and says "let me see your hands." Floyd is visibly startled, before opening the door slightly and Lane keeps yelling to show his hands.
Lane pulls his gun with his right hand and points it at Floyd for about 40 seconds while telling him to show his hands. Floyd says "I got shot the same way before." Floyd is handcuffed within the first 2 minutes or so of the interaction.
While handcuffing him, Kueng says Stop resisting and Floyd says he's not. Keung has Floyd sit down against a building across the street from Cup Foods for a moment, talking to him, then Lane tells Kueng to put FLoyd in the squad car.
The sequence at the squad car lasts a total of about five minutes. Floyd repeatedly says he doesn't want to go in the car and is claustrophobic. After patting him down and standing him up after he fell, the two officers try to push him into the driver's side back seat of the car.
They spend about three minutes trying to force George Floyd into the car. After the first minute, Lane goes to the passenger side and tries to pull Lane into the car as Kueng pushes. At some point in the last minute, Chauvin and Tao arrive and try pushing/pulling GF at the car.
During the struggle at the car, George Floyd at least twice tells the officers he's had COVID and "I can't breathe." They finally bring him to the ground, all together, Chauvin at the head/neck, Kueng at the middle and Lane at the legs/feet.
On Kueng's video, you can see the moment Chauvin's knee goes to Floyd's neck, and you can see the moment he takes it off. The time elapsed is 9 minutes and 27 seconds.
The amount of time Chauvin's knee is on Floyd's neck prior to the beginning of this Facebook video, is about one minute and 33 seconds
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And the amount of police interaction with George Floyd that is not captured on the Facebook video is about 11 minutes and 28 seconds
At the point Lane says "should we roll him over" -- it is while George Floyd is still talking/pleading. When he says it the second time, Floyd is not moving.
The moment Kueng checks his pulse is clearly captured on camera. Kueng says and repeats he can't find a pulse. The officers restrain George Floyd another 3 minutes after that, until ambulance arrives. But Kueng, after checking pulse, squats back and appears to stop holding
All those nuances are hard to determine because the body camera isn't always pointed where you can see what's happening.
After George Floyd is taken away in the ambulance, Kueng picks up a body camera next to George Floyd's shoe and returns it to Chauvin. It appears it fell off when they were struggling near the car.
Lane rode in the ambulance and helped with CPR on George Floyd. I would say I hope I never have to watch that again, but I assume we'll see it at the trial. That is very very tough.
The part we identified earlier in the transcript of apparent confusion among first responders over the location -- that happened after the ambulance was stopped and Lane jumped in a fire truck. Might not be fair to say the EMTs were confused. The firefighter was.
The part where Derek Chauvin says "you're talking fine... a lot of talking, a lot of yelling... it takes a lot of oxygen.." -- that happens about 2 minutes before George Floyd loses consciousness. Chauvin has sarcasm in his voice.
Envisioning how the body cameras will be used in court, I imagine the defense will concentrate a lot on the three minutes of physical struggle to put George Floyd in the car - plus initially not following commands.
You've already seen much of what prosecutors will focus on. I imagine they will also scrutinize the initial interaction, Lane's gun pulled, all the things George Floyd said, and the interaction between officers when Floyd loses consciousness, failing to roll him over even then.
There are other portions that will play very poorly to the general public. Lane, when asked if he's OK, "Yeah, l mean my knee might be a little scratched, but I‘ll survive."
I wish I could interview Kueng. After he checks the pulse, he sits back, appearing to squat and not holding down Floyd any longer. I want to know what's going through his head there. He didn't say very much at all during the entire restraint.
It's worth adding that even if you read the transcript and picture everything in your head, it's different to watch the video.
