A ROOKIE cop who was charged in George Floyd’s death “tried to get Chauvin to take his knee off neck.”
During an interview with the Today show on Monday morning, Thomas Lane’s attorney, Earl Gray, said: “He was doing what he thought was right.”
“He did not stand by and watch. He was holding the legs because the guy was resisting at first,” Gray insisted.
“When he’s holding his legs, he says to Chauvin, ‘Well, shall we roll him over because he says he can’t breathe?’ Chauvin says no.”
Last week it was revealed that the 37-year-old cop had a list of offences leading up to his employment as a police cadet in 2019, according to public records.
Lane was one of the four cops who were arrested following George Floyd’s death last week.
The 46-year-old died after officer Derek Chauvin was seen in a now viral video kneeling on his neck during an arrest.
Lane now faces charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter, following Floyd’s death.
He was still on probation when he was fired on May 26 and had only worked four shifts with the force, CBS reported.
However, public records have shown that Lane racked up more than a dozen criminal charges and traffic citations and was convicted of seven charges, Insider reported.
Four of the charges were relating to traffic violations and two were parking-meter violations, according to the outlet.
However, in October 2001, Lane was reportedly charged with two counts of obstructing legal process, damaging property, unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct.
He was convicted of one count of obstructing legal process and one charge of damaging property.
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In Lane’s job application, any information about his criminal charges were redacted.
The former officer is now being held at a bail of $750,000.
The complaint against Lane notes that he asked about rolling Floyd on his side and wondered about delirium, but went on to say that Lane “took no actions to assist Mr. Floyd, to change his position, or to reduce the force the officers were using against Mr. Floyd”, AP reports.
More to follow…
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