The Minneapolis police officer who held back bystanders while a fellow officer murdered George Floyd was convicted Monday of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
Tou Thao, 37, was found guilty following a judge’s review of evidence in the case. He opted against a jury trial.
Thao was one of four officers to respond on May 25, 2020, after a store clerk said Floyd tried to pay with a fake $20 bill.
Fellow cops Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane held Floyd to the ground, with Chauvin pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes.
During that time, Thao handled crowd control, preventing concerned citizens from helping Floyd.
Thao’s actions were not authorized by law,” wrote Judge Peter Cahill, who also presided over Chauvin’s state murder trial. “There is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Thao’s actions were objectively unreasonable from the perspective of a reasonable police officer, when viewed under the totality of the circumstances.”
Thao had already been convicted in federal court alongside Kueng and Lane for depriving Floyd of medical care and failing to intervene. He was sentenced to three years and six months in federal prison.
Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder in state court. Kueng and Lane pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. But Thao refused a plea deal, saying “it would be lying” to plead guilty.
In his defense, Thao argued that he did not realize Chauvin was committing a crime. However, in his decision, Judge Cahill pointed out that even untrained bystanders realized Floyd was in extreme distress.
Thao’s conviction in state court concludes the criminal prosecutions into Floyd’s murder. He will be sentenced in August.
“While we have now reached the end of the prosecution of Floyd’s murder, it is not behind us,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said. “There is much more that prosecutors, law-enforcement leaders, rank-and-file officers, elected officials, and community can do to bring about true justice in law enforcement and true trust and safety in all communities.”