PROBING POLICE

Justice Department Convenes Grand Jury Investigating Officer Filmed Kneeling on George Floyd

The former Minneapolis cop allegedly kneed a teenager in the back in 2017 in a disturbing echo of George Floyd’s arrest.

Justice Department prosecutors in Minneapolis have called a grand jury and summoned witnesses in the civil investigation of the former Minneapolis police officer filmed kneeling on George Floyd’s neck in May 2020. The DOJ is probing a 2017 arrest made by Derek Chauvin during which he allegedly pressed his knee against the back of a 14-year-old boy in a disturbing echo of his treatment of Floyd, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. The teenager repeatedly told Chauvin he could not breathe, and the former policeman allegedly ignored him. Ira Toles, a Black man living in Minneapolis, previously told The Daily Beast that Chauvin “tried to kill me” in 2008. Chauvin is charged with second-degree unintentional murder and manslaughter for his involvement in Floyd’s detention and subsequent death.