One of Four Minneapolis Police Charged Over Floyd’s Death Freed on Bail

One of the four former Minneapolis police officers who were charged over the death of 👤George Floyd, a black man whose death in custody set off protests for police reform and racial justice, was released on bail on Wednesday.

Protests flared for a 17th day early on Thursday with crowds in Portland, Oregon, flooding city-center streets with some activists throwing bottles at police and removing temporary security fencing and using it to block traffic.

The former police officer released, Thomas Lane, 37, had been held on $750,000 bail and was freed from Hennepin County jail, sheriff’s office records showed.

He was one of three officers charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in the 46-year-old Floyd’s death on May 25.

A fourth officer, Derek Chauvin, 44, was videotaped pressing his knee to Floyd’s neck as he gasped “I can’t breathe” and called for his mother before he died. Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

All four officers have been fired from the Minneapolis police department.

Lane’s attorney, Earl Gray, did not immediately return telephone phone calls to Reuters on Wednesday night but Gray has told media that his client tried to help Floyd.

Gray also told the media that Lane was only on his fourth day on the job on patrol duty and that Chauvin was his training officer, whom he should obey.

“What was my client supposed to do but follow what his training officer said?” Gray said in a court hearing, Forbes and other media reported.

Chauvin’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment.

Many of those joining the more than two weeks of protests have been calling for a ban on choke holds and other methods of restraint used by police.