A new video showing a different angle of George Floyd’s arrest, which led to his later death, appears to show several officers kneeling on him.
During Thursday’s airing of The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC played a video that the network obtained of Floyd’s arrest that shows four officers present behind a vehicle, with three appearing to kneel on him.
“We have a little bit of … breaking news that I want to present to you, and I’m going to be seeing this at the same time that you do. And it is a new video that appears to show a different angle of the arrest of George Floyd,” Maddow said while speaking with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
The approximately 15-second video, taken from a bystander’s point of view, appears to show Floyd crying out to officers that he is unable to breathe. “I can’t breathe, man! Please!” he is heard saying.
“To me, it just confirms what we saw in the first video. … It clearly needs to be examined. It clearly needs to be investigated more closely,” Ellison said in response to the new video. “But as I see that video, it looks like he is in a helpless position, handcuffed, and without any ability to move. And he’s pleading with the officers to bring some relief to him, now that he’s clearly within their custody. So that’s what I see in that video.”
Protests in the city of Minneapolis began Tuesday after video emerged online of a police officer kneeling on the neck of Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, for approximately eight minutes until he became unresponsive. Floyd was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Multiple buildings were set on fire late Thursday night as protests erupted into violence. Hundreds if not thousands of protesters swarmed the city’s police’s 3rd Precinct, setting the building on fire. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey addressed a room of anxious reporters following the events in an early Friday morning press conference.
“The symbolism of a building cannot outweigh the importance of life, of our officers, or the public,” Frey said. “We could not risk serious injury to anyone, and we will continue to patrol the 3rd Precinct entirely. We will continue to do our jobs in that area, and you know, brick and mortar is not as important as life.”
