PROSECUTORS have warned there is ‘evidence that does not support criminal charges’ in the case of four cops accused of killing George Floyd, as they say police can use a ‘certain amount of force – but not excessive’.
Authorities dashed hopes that an arrest had been made over the death of the 46-year-old father of two when they called a press conference to announce a development in the investigation Thursday only to leave attendees waiting two hours before finally announcing they had no new developments to share.
‘We thought we would have another development to tell you about… but we don’t,’ admitted US Attorney for the District of Minnesota Erica MacDonald.
Mike Freeman, county attorney for Hennepin County, pleaded for patience from the Minneapolis community ravaged by Floyd’s death at the press conference Thursday and insisted that the investigation ‘can’t be rushed’.
While he condemned the actions of the white cop as ‘horrific and terrible’, he said there was ‘other evidence that does not support a criminal charge’.
‘That video is graphic and horrific and terrible and no person should do that,’ he said.
‘But my job in the end is to prove he violated a criminal statute – but there is other evidence that does not support a criminal charge.’
Freeman did not provide any detail over what the ‘other evidence’ could be that provides a defense for Chauvin’s actions but said his office now had to ‘wade through’ it before charges can be brought.
‘My business is ‘is it criminal?’ and that’s what we have to prove,’ he said.
‘We have to do this right, we have to prove it in a court of law,’ he said.
‘We can’t rush justice as justice cant be rushed.’
Four Minneapolis officers involved in the arrest of George Floyd were fired Tuesday. They were named as Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao, and J Alexander Kueng.
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