Body-worn camera footage from former Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane showed that George Floyd was given no explanation for why he was being questioned before Lane pointed a gun and swore at him, touched him multiple times and forced him out of his vehicle into the street.
The court made footage captured by Lane and fellow fired officer J. Alexander Kueng publicly viewable Wednesday by appointment. Sixty-six spaces were made available at one-hour increments to watch the videos that totaled about 65 minutes.
Lane and Kueng, along with onetime colleague Tou Thao, are charged with aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter in connection with Floyd's death while he was under arrest on May 25 at E. 38th Street and S. Chicago Avenue. Another fired officer, Derek Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-murder and second-degree manslaughter.
The Star Tribune viewed Lane's and Kueng's videos, which showed that neither officer told Floyd nor his two passengers why they were being investigated that night until several minutes after the encounter began and after Floyd had already been handcuffed.
Lane's video showed that medics at the scene did not appear alarmed or rushed in assisting Floyd after taking his pulse, and that about three minutes passed before anyone began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Floyd, who had been unresponsive for several minutes by then.
Kueng's video showed that the body camera worn by Chauvin fell off at the scene for an unknown period of time. Prosecutors have said Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for nearly 8 minutes, but Kueng's video showed that it as about 9 minutes and 30 seconds.
Lane's attorney, Earl Gray, filed the two videos in court last week along with a motion to dismiss the charges against his client. Gray has argued that Lane was a rookie working at the direction of Chauvin, a 19-year veteran.
Lane twice asked about flipping the 46-year-old Floyd from his stomach onto his side after Floyd complained multiple times that he couldn't breathe. But Lane was rebuffed by Chauvin. Lane later got in an ambulance and performed CPR on Floyd, Gray has argued.