As George Floyd said he was going to die, officer said his pleas were using up oxygen, transcripts s

MINNEAPOLIS — George Floyd repeatedly begged police officers not to shoot him and complained of being claustrophobic as they tried to place him in a squad car in the minutes before he was killed on a South Minneapolis street corner in May, according to transcripts of police body camera footage from the scene released Wednesday.

The transcripts make clear that Floyd was trying to cooperate with police but was deathly afraid of them, at times telling them that he had had covid-19 and was worried that he was going to die because he couldn’t breathe while in their custody. As one of the officers — Derek Chauvin — pressed a knee into his neck and held Floyd on the ground, he told Floyd that he must be okay because he was able to speak, saying that he was using up a lot of oxygen pleading for help.

“They going to kill me,” Floyd said as officers sat atop him in the street, according to the transcripts. “They’re going to kill me man.”

The newly disclosed transcripts of audio from body cameras worn by J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas K. Lane, two of the four former Minneapolis police officers charged in Floyd’s killing, were disclosed in court Wednesday as Lane’s attorney sought to dismiss charges against his client, arguing there is not enough evidence that he committed a crime.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/george-floyd-death-transcripts/2020/07/08/a7050efe-c15c-11ea-b178-bb7b05b94af1_story.html