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George Floyd murder: Shocking new video shows ex-cop Tou Thao ignoring bystanders' pleas to save Floyd's life

Tou Thao stood and argued with bystanders and kept yelling at them to stay on the sidewalk and not come closer

A newly surfaced shocking footage shows former Minneapolis Officer Tou Thao ignoring desperate pleas from bystanders while ex-officer Derek Chauvin knelt on the 46-year-old's neck for almost nine minutes. Floyd family attorney Ben Crump released the video on Sunday morning, June 14. The footage is at a wider angle than the original viral video and features bystanders urging Thao to intervene and help Floyd, reveals the Daily Mail. 

Crump had warned in the caption of the video, "This is beyond disturbing, even harder to watch than the first video." He had then written, "Tou Thao stood guard as Derek Chauvin MURDERED George Floyd ... while witnesses of the execution tried to stand up for JUSTICE, tried to save George's life!" 

"The protest of those bystanders, who refused to just stand by and let it happen, has reverberated around the world — fueling our protest against injustice and police brutality!! 8 minutes 46 seconds," Crump added. 

The video clip also shows a man and a woman arguing with the officers and urging them to check on Floyd's pulse as other bystanders join in and can be heard pleading with officers to help Floyd. As Thao argued with a woman closeby, a man yells, "You think that's okay? Check his pulse!" 

The man continued, "The ain't moved yet bro. He has not moved not one time!" The man proceeded to directly ask Thao, "You’re going to let him kill that man in front of you?" Another woman can be heard yelling in the background, "Tell me what his pulse is right now!" 

A second asks, "Did they just f**king kill him?" Slowly, a crowd started to gather at the scene, people began to yell, "Get off of his neck!' and 'He’s not moving!" While they continued to plead with the officers, Thao did not even try once to get Chauvin off Floyd's neck. 

Instead, he stood and argued with bystanders and kept yelling at them to stay on the sidewalk and not come closer. Eventually, paramedics arrived on the scene and put Floyd's lifeless body on a stretcher. 

We had earlier reported that according to lawyer Crump, "Beyond doubt, he would be alive today if not for the pressure applied to his neck by officer Derek Chauvin and the strain on his body by two other officers. The ambulance was his hearse." 

 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.

Post Floyd's death, which resulted in nationwide fury and protests, Thao had erased all social media handles and fled. A database that consists of complaints against the police shows that Thao has been the subject of at least six separate investigations. One of these was still pending at the time he lost his job.

Two years ago, Thao and another Minnesota officer were involved in a case that was settled out of court when the city of Minneapolis paid an African American man, Lamar Ferguson, $25,000. According to the lawsuit, Thao and his fellow officer had allegedly "punch(ed), kick(ed) and kneed" Ferguson.

"They had no reason to stop me, they started asking me a whole bunch of questions, where I was going," Ferguson told The Sun.