What we know about the 2017 encounter that led to Derek Chauvin’s second indictment
A separate, two-count indictment charged Chauvin with willfully depriving a Minneapolis resident who was 14 at the time of the “constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer,” according to a statement from the US Justice Department.
One count in the separate indictment alleged that on September 4, 2017, the former officer, without legal justification, “held Juvenile by the throat and struck Juvenile 1 multiple times in the head with a flashlight.”
“This offense included the use of a dangerous weapon — a flashlight — and resulted in bodily injury to Juvenile 1,” the indictment said.
The second count alleged that Chauvin “held his knee on the neck and the upper back of the teenager even after the teenager was lying prone, handcuffed, and unresisting, also resulting in bodily injury,” according to the statement.
Attorneys Ben Crump, Antonio Romanucci and L. Chris Stewart — who represent Floyd’s family — said in a statement “the additional indictment of Derek Chauvin shows a pattern and practice of behavior.”
In the 2017 incident, Chauvin and his partner responded to a domestic assault call, according to court documents filed by state prosecutors.
The victim told officers she had been assaulted by her two minor children, a son and daughter, the documents said. The officers located the juvenile male on the floor in the back of the house.
The teen did not comply with commands and directions after he was told he was under arrest, the documents said.
Chauvin claimed the juvenile “displayed active resistance to efforts to take him into custody” by “flailing his arms around,” the documents said.
The officer described the teen as about 6’2″ and 200 pounds and said the boy backed himself into a corner and “stretched his legs forward,” according to the state court documents.
Chauvin said he struck the teen on the shoulders after he continued to struggle and resist, the documents said. Another officer got one handcuff on the boy.
Chauvin said he “applied a neck restraint” and then was managed “to roll [the juvenile male] onto his stomach and grab his left wrist so that cuffing could be completed,” according to the documents. Chauvin then “used body weight to pin [the juvenile male] to the floor.”
The teen’s mother came into the room and yelled at the officers, the documents said. The boy, with blood coming from his left ear, was later taken to a hospital.
“The child began repeatedly telling the officers that he could not breathe, and his mother told Chauvin to take his knee off her son,” the documents said.
At some point the teen lost consciousness, according to court documents filed by state prosecutors.
Another federal indictment announced on Friday said Chauvin deprived Floyd of the right to be free from “unreasonable seizure, which includes the right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer.”
Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng were also charged in connection with their failure to intervene in Chauvin’s use of unreasonable force, per the indictment. Chauvin, Thao, Kueng and the fourth officer, Thomas Lane, all face a charge for failing to give Floyd medical aid.
Thao, Kueng and Lane also face state charges, including aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. They have pleaded not guilty, and their joint trial is expected to this summer.
