Derek Chauvin's past conflicts with George Floyd may have motivated killing, must be examined closely: Houston chief
The death of George Floyd at the hands of the police sparked not just nationwide but worldwide outrage as people protested police brutality and a lack of regard for African-American lives. 46-year-old George Floyd was killed when a now-former police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost 9 minutes despite Floyd's pleas that he was unable to breathe. Chauvin paid no heed and did not budge. Floyd eventually lost consciousness and passed away. It later came to be known that Chauvin and Floyd worked together as security at a Minneapolis nightclub and it was very likely that they knew each other.
According to Houston police chief Art Acevedo, who spoke on 'Your World' on Wednesday, June 10, Chauvin may have had some personal motivation while he knelt on Floyd's neck. Acevedo also urged investigators to look at Chauvin and Floyd's history "very closely." "I know if it was in my city, I would be investigating very closely the relationship with Mr. Floyd and the officer that had that knee on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds," Acevedo said.
"I have a feeling that we may find some kind of conflict that may have led to this individual doing what he did with an abandoned heart and with malice in his heart, which I think will have an impact on the type of charges and the impact on the trial moving forward," he added. Acevedo also said, "I don't think that you can eliminate race in equivalence of the motivation". He added that investigators should definitely look "deep into his [Chauvin's] past and motives." We had earlier reported that a man who worked with George Floyd and now ex-police officer Derek Chauvin at a Minneapolis nightclub have revealed that two men would "bump heads" a lot with Chauvin being "aggressive" of the two.
The man, David Pinney, was working security along with Floyd and Chauvin at the El Nuevo Rodeo last year. While speaking to CBS News, Pinney shared, "It has a lot to do with Derek being extremely aggressive within the club with some of the patrons, which was an issue." The former owner of the nightclub was not able to confirm the details. The Associated Press reported that she had recalled Chauvin had become aggressive during the events that had a lot of black crowds and would not respond to fights by spraying the crowd with some mace. However, Pinney changed his story on Wednesday, June 10, and told CBS News in an email that he had mistaken Floyd for another African American man. He shared, "There has been a mix up between George and another fellow co-worker."
It was just last month that the club's owner, Maya Santamaria confirmed that the two men worked as security together at the same club. While speaking to KSTP-TV said, "Chauvin was our off-duty police for almost the entirety of the 17 years that we were open." Santamaria also spoke to CBS and said that Chauvin did have a short fuse and a very short temper. He also had a tendency to overreact to situations. "He sometimes had a real short fuse and he seemed afraid," she shared. "When there was an altercation he always resorted to pulling out his mace and pepper-spraying everybody right away, even if I felt it was unwarranted," she continued.