George Floyd: 911 dispatcher who saw live feed of arrest was so alarmed she called a supervisor to voice concern
A Minneapolis dispatcher had grown very alarmed when she saw the arrest of 46-year-old George Floyd in real-time and was so disturbed she called in a supervisor, reports reveal.
The unknown dispatcher spoke to the supervisor and said, "I don’t know, you can call me a snitch if you want to, but we have the cameras up for (squad) 320’s call, and… I don’t know if they had to use force or not, but they got something out of the back of the squad, and all of them sat on this man."
"So, I don’t know if they needed you or not, but they haven’t said anything to me," the dispatcher said, the Star Tribune reports. The supervisor then responded saying, "Yeah, they haven’t said anything yet… just a takedown, which doesn’t count, but I’ll find out." The dispatcher continued, "No problem. We don’t get to ever see it, so when we see it we’re just like, well, that looks a little different." The tapes got released on Monday, June 15, by Minneapolis officials as the protests against Floyd's death continue.
In the viral video, a now-former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin was seen kneeling on the neck of 46-year-old Floyd while arresting him. Floyd repeatedly said he was unable to breathe but Chauvin paid no heed. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes in the video that sparked outrage not just in the US but across the world.
The city had also released transcripts of two 911 calls from residents who had watched Floyd's death, Fox9-TV reports. One caller said, "Hello, I am on the block of 38th and Chicago and I literally watched police officers not take a pulse and not do anything to save a man, and I am a first responder myself."
"I just happened to be on a walk so, this dude, this, they f—–g killed him," one caller added. An official post-mortem examination declared the death of George Floyd as a homicide on Monday, June 1. Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder in addition to second-degree manslaughter. The three other officers, Tou Thao, J Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane, were charged with aiding and abetting murder. It is not clear whether the supervisor who was contacted by the dispatcher went to the scene.
We had previously reported that the teenager who had filmed the bystander video clip of Floyd has said that she had never intended to be a hero and also had no idea the kind of impact the footage would make. 17-year-old Darnella Frazier had said that she was walking her cousin, 9, to get a snack from Cup Foods on Memorial Day when she saw four police officers pulling an African-American man from his vehicle.
Frazier's attorney Seth Cobin spoke to The Star Tribune and said, "She had no idea she would witness and document one of the most important and high-profile police murders in American history. If it wasn't for her bravery, presence of mind, and steady hand, and her willingness to post the video on Facebook and share her trauma with the world, all four of those police officers would still be on the streets, possibly terrorizing other members of the community."