Thomas Lane and J. Kueng have been the primary officers to answer a report that Floyd had tried to move a counterfeit $20 invoice, and so they helped Chauvin restrain Floyd. Tou Thao, the second-most senior officer on the scene after Chauvin, held again a bunch of bystanders shouting on the officers to get off Floyd.
Lane and Kueng have been rookies just some days into their jobs as full-fledged officers. Though each took observe of Floyd’s deteriorating situation — Kueng remarked that he couldn’t discover a pulse, and Lane requested if they need to flip Floyd onto his aspect — neither tried to cease Chauvin as he pressed his knee into the handcuffed Black man’s neck.
After the federal trial, Lane, Kueng and Thao face state fees of aiding and abetting homicide.
Here’s an extra take a look at the three former officers:
Tou Thao
Thao was Chauvin’s companion that day. Thao, a Hmong American, had been with the Minneapolis Police Department for round 11 years, beginning as a neighborhood service officer, a program meant to foster variety by grooming potential cops. He had been a full-fledged police officer for greater than eight years.
Thao joined the pressure part-time in 2008 whereas attending North Hennepin Community College. He was laid off quickly on the finish of 2009 throughout a finances crunch. He additionally beforehand labored as a safety guard at Boston Scientific amenities within the Minneapolis space, as a grocery store stocker and as a coach at a McDonald’s.
City information present six complaints have been filed towards Thao. He was additionally the topic of a 2017 federal lawsuit accusing him and one other officer of extreme pressure. According to the lawsuit, Lamar Ferguson claimed that in 2014, Thao and his companion stopped him and beat him whereas Ferguson was on his strategy to his girlfriend’s home. The lawsuit was settled for $25,000.
Thao’s lawyer is Robert Paule.
Thomas Lane
Lane, who’s white, joined the division in early 2019 as a 35-year-old cadet — a lot older than most rookies. He had no complaints in his file throughout his brief time on the pressure.
According to the Star Tribune, he adopted three generations of males from his mom’s household into the Minneapolis Police Department, together with his great-great-grandfather Michael Mealey, who was chief from 1911 to 1912.
His earlier jobs included stints as a corrections officer at Hennepin County’s juvenile jail and as an assistant probation officer with a Ramsey County residential program for juvenile offenders. The University of Minnesota graduate additionally mentioned on his employment kinds that he had completed volunteer work tutoring Somali youth and at-risk elementary faculty college students, and with a police actions league for youths on Minneapolis’ predominantly Black north aspect.
Lane’s lawyer is Earl Gray, who represented former Brooklyn Center officer Kim Potter, who was convicted of manslaughter in December within the taking pictures demise of Daunte Wright. Gray additionally was on the protection crew that gained an acquittal in 2017 for former St. Anthony Officer Jeronimo Yanez within the taking pictures demise of Philando Castile.
J. Kueng
Kueng, who’s Black, was the youngest of the 4 officers on the scene. He was partnered with Lane that day. He was raised by his mom in north Minneapolis.
Family members advised The New York Times in 2020 that Kueng, the son of a white mom and Nigerian father, wished to turn out to be a police officer to bridge the hole between police and the Black neighborhood. Two of his siblings have spoken out critically about his function in Floyd’s demise.
His personnel file, which says he speaks, reads and writes Russian, didn’t record any disciplinary actions.
Kueng was a 2018 graduate of the University of Minnesota, the place he labored part-time in campus safety. Like Thao, he was additionally a neighborhood service officer. He additionally labored practically three years as a theft-prevention officer on the former Macy’s in downtown Minneapolis.
And he labored brief stints as a stocker on the downtown Target retailer, and as a youth baseball and soccer coach in Brooklyn Center.
Kueng and members of the family travelled to Haiti to volunteer after the 2010 earthquake, in line with kinfolk and his lawyer.
Kueng’s lawyer is Tom Plunkett, who helped characterize former Minneapolis Officer Mohamed Noor within the 2017 taking pictures demise of Justine Ruszczyk Damond. Noor’s conviction for third-degree homicide was overturned, however his manslaughter conviction stands.
