(Headline USA) A Minnesota judge ordered the release of body camera footage recorded by former officers charged in the death of George Floyd, which showed him behaving erratically and resisting arrest.
Judge Peter Cahill ruled Friday the that videos from the body cameras of Thomas Lane and J. Kueng taken on the night Floyd died will be made publicly available, though it is unclear how or when the footage will be released.
The videos were filed with the court last month by Lane’s attorney.
Initially only transcripts of the audio were released, but a judge later allowed journalists and members of the public to view the footage by appointment.
The Daily Mail in Great Britain on Monday published parts of the videos after they had been leaked.
The body camera videos and transcripts were filed in court by Lane’s attorney, Earl Gray, as part of a motion to have Lane’s case dismissed.
Attorneys for the coalition of media organizations, including The Associated Press, had asked the judge to allow them to be published.
Floyd, a black man who was handcuffed, died May 25 after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes as Floyd said he couldn’t breathe.
The body camera videos showed Floyd claiming he couldn’t breathe throughout the confrontation, even before he was on the ground.
His claim that he was claustrophobic as the reason for not wanting to go into a police patrol car was undermined by the fact that he was behind the wheel of his own car when first encountered by the officers.
The officers showed no racial animus toward Floyd or his black companions throughout the incident.
Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter.
Tou Thao, Lane and Kueng are charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and manslaughter.
All four officers were fired.
Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.
