Former Officer Tou Thao Sentenced to Prison for Role in George Floyd's Death
A former Minneapolis police officer, Tou Thao, has been handed a 57-month (almost five-year) prison term for his part in the tragic death of George Floyd.
Thao was held accountable for aiding and abetting manslaughter, as decreed by a Minnesota judge in May. His testimony revealed that he played the role of a "human traffic cone," keeping bystanders at bay while Derek Chauvin kneeled on George Floyd's neck for nearly ten minutes.
The heart-wrenching demise of Mr. Floyd on May 25, 2020, ignited widespread protests across the United States, amplifying calls for justice and police reform.
The incident led to the conviction of all four former police officers involved on federal civil rights charges, alongside state murder charges for Derek Chauvin. Ex-officers Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
Thao's sentence, a result of his civil rights conviction, will overlap with the 57-month prison term he received. Notably, Thao chose to forgo a jury trial in the manslaughter case, allowing Judge Peter Cahill to determine the verdict. He also opted out of testifying or cross-examining witnesses.
In a comprehensive 177-page ruling issued in May, Judge Cahill highlighted that Thao's actions, including shielding Chauvin and the other officers from the crowd, hindered the efforts of a trained emergency medic to provide assistance to George Floyd. The judge emphatically stated that Thao's conduct was "objectively unreasonable" from the perspective of a reasonable police officer, taking into account the entirety of the circumstances.
Furthermore, Judge Cahill underscored that Thao's actions were even more unreasonable given his responsibility to intervene and halt excessive use of force by fellow officers, combined with his training to administer medical aid.