Four Minneapolis Officers Fired After Death of Black Man

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Four Minneapolis police officers who were involved in the arrest of a black man who died in police custody were fired Tuesday. The firings come a day after a bystander’s video showed the man pleading that he could not breathe as a white officer knelt on his neck and kept his knee there for several minutes after the man stopped moving.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced the terminations on Twitter, and said the firings were the “right call.” Monday’s death of George Floyd was under investigation by the FBI and state law enforcement authorities. It drew comparisons to the case of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died in 2014 in New York after being placed in a police chokehold.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey apologized to the black community Tuesday in a post on his Facebook page.

“Being Black in America should not be a death sentence. For five minutes, we watched a white officer press his knee into a Black man’s neck. Five minutes. When you hear someone calling for help, you’re supposed to help. This officer failed in the most basic, human sense,” Frey posted.