The lawyer for the family of George Floyd Benjamin Crump called for toughening punishment for Floyd's killer - ex-police officer Derek Chauvin, CBS News reported.
"Well, certainly based on everything that has been presented to us. I've talked with his family ad nauseam because you can imagine after seeing the police have his knee on his neck, not for one minute, not for two minutes, not for three minutes, but for over eight minutes while George pleaded, I can't breathe, I can't breathe, called for his mother. We now have the audio from the police body cam and we hear where one officer says he doesn't have a pulse, maybe we should turn him on his side. But yet, Officer Chauvin says no, we're going to keep him in this position. That's intent, MARGARET. Also, the fact that Officer Chauvin kept his knee on his neck for almost three minutes after he was unconscious," the attorney said during "Face the Nation."
"We don't understand how that is not first degree murder. We don't understand- we don't understand how all these officers have not been arrested. And, yes, his family has been notified by the owner of a club that Derek Chauvin was an off duty police officer while George Floyd was a security guard. And so they had to overlap. And so that is going to be an interesting aspect to this case and hopefully upgrading these charges to first degree murder because we believe he knew who George Floyd was."
"We think that he had intent based on not the one minute, two minute, but over eight minutes, almost nine minutes he kept his knee in a man's neck that was begging and pleading for breath. At what point does it not be about detaining a man who's face down with handcuffs, not posing any threat to an intentional will to cause bodily harm? And if that results in death, every prosecutor in America will show that that is first degree murder. And I have to clarify this, because we saw it in Eric Garner when they start talking about underlying health conditions and what drugs and alcohol he had in his system, George Floyd died because of the knee being shoved into his neck, and he could not breathe," the attorney said.
The incident led to a wave of indignation in the US, resulting in riots throughout the country.
