Ex-Minneapolis officer Thomas Lane, convicted in George Floyd’s killing, is released from prison

Thomas Lane, one of four Minneapolis police officers convicted of killing George Floyd more than four years ago, was released Tuesday from federal prison.

U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) spokesperson Randilee Giamusso told the Star Tribune that Lane left the federal low-security facility in Littleton, Colo., Tuesday morning.

Lane, 41, completed the federal portion of his prison time in April. He then stayed in custody to satisfy his state sentence in Hennepin County District Court, for aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

Another year of supervised release will follow before he satisfies the terms of his state sentence, a BOP spokesperson said. He is the first of the four officers implicated in Floyd’s death to be released from prison.

In July 2022, a federal judge sentenced Lane to 2½ years in prison in the federal civil rights case linked to the killing of Floyd — delivering a lighter sentence than what prosecutors had urged.

One of four officers charged both in state and federal court in connection with Floyd’s May 25, 2020, murder, Lane held Floyd’s legs as officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds.

Lane twice asked whether the officers should reposition Floyd and later attempted CPR after paramedics loaded Floyd into an ambulance, but prosecutors argued that he did not do enough to aid Floyd.

Chauvin was convicted in Hennepin County District Court in 2021 of second-degree murder and manslaughter. Chauvin later pleaded guilty to federal charges for violating Floyd’s civil rights and is serving a 20-year prison term concurrent with his 22-year state sentence. He’s due to be released from prison in 2038, according to BOP records.

Accomplices Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng were also convicted in state and federal courts and remain imprisoned with release dates scheduled for April 2025, according to the BOP.

Floyd, who was Black, died while pinned under the knee of Chauvin, who is white, at the corner of Chicago Avenue and 38th Street in south Minneapolis. Floyd’s death ignited days of protests and at times deadly and destructive riots.

Lane was the first of officers to make contact with Floyd, who was accused by a store clerk of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill that day.

“Let me see your other hand! Both hands!” Lane is captured on his body-worn camera as shouting. When Floyd was slow to respond, Lane drew his gun and swore at him. “Put your [expletive] hands up right now! Let me see your other hand!”

Lane was the only officer on the scene who raised concerns about Floyd’s health as Floyd pleaded from the pavement, saying he couldn’t breathe. Lane asked Chauvin whether Floyd should be rolled on his side, and later rode with an unresponsive Floyd in an ambulance, administering chest compressions in a futile attempt to revive him.

Lane was on his fourth day on the job when his time as an officer came to an abrupt end. The 37-year-old, who was living in New Brighton with his wife at the time of Floyd’s death, had just realized his dream of following three generations of men in his family to the Minneapolis Police Department.

In a statement to the Star Tribune following his charging, Lane said, “Everything I had been doing for the last six years, had been working toward the goal of getting hired by MPD.” He said it was the only department he’d applied to, and the “only one that I ever wanted to work in.”

He followed men on his mother’s side of the family into law enforcement. His late grandfather Donald Mealey and great-grandfather William Mealey were Minneapolis police detectives. His great-great grandfather Michael Mealey was Minneapolis police chief from 1911 to 1912.

Before becoming an officer, Lane worked in construction and in the service industry at Brit’s Pub and Acme Comedy Company in Minneapolis.

He eventually landed full-time work in law enforcement as a corrections officer in Hennepin County’s Juvenile Detention Center in downtown Minneapolis. That was his last job before he signed on as an MPD recruit in early 2019. He spent a year in training before he worked his first and only week as a fully sworn officer.