Tou Thao, one of the police officers present when George Floyd was asphyxiated below an officer’s knee in Minneapolis in 2020, was found guilty of accessory to homicide, according to court documents released on Tuesday.
He had kept the passers-by terrified by the scene at a distance and who were trying to intervene while the black forty-something was dying on the ground. The ex-policeman has already been found guilty of “violating the civil rights” of George Floyd and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
A Hennepin County court in Minnesota ruled on Monday that he was guilty of accessory to homicide. His sentence is to be set on August 7.
Tou Thao “was an experienced Minneapolis police officer.” “He knew that to immobilize [un suspect] face down could kill,” the judge said in his verdict.
“Like passers-by, Thao could see the life slowly leaving Floyd’s body. Yet he made the decision to actively participate in his death: he pushed away worried passers-by and even stopped an off-duty Minneapolis firefighter from providing the medical aid that Floyd so desperately needed. »
The family of George Floyd said they were “grateful” for the verdict, “a new measure bringing accountability for his death”, according to the latter’s lawyers.
“With each of these judicial measures, there is even more proof that police violence is an illegal act — and punishable,” they added in a press release.
On May 25, 2020, white policeman Derek Chauvin, a seasoned Minneapolis police officer, knelt on the African-American’s neck for nearly ten minutes, indifferent to the interventions of shocked passers-by and the groans of George Floyd.
Two other officers had helped hold him down.
The scene, filmed and posted online, sparked huge protests against racism and police brutality across the United States and many other countries.
Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder by Minnesota state justice after a well-attended trial and was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison.
Tou Thao is the latest of the police officers involved to be found guilty.