Derek Chauvin

Derek Michael Chauvin ( ; born March 19, 1976) is an American former police officer who murdered George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Chauvin was a member of the Minneapolis Police Department from 2001 to 2020. On May 25, 2020, Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for about nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down on the street, calling out "I can't breathe", during an arrest made with three other officers. Chauvin was dismissed by the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) on May 26 and arrested on May 29. The murder set off a series of protests in the Twin Cities and across the rest of the United States, later spreading around the world. In his career, Chauvin had 18 complaints against him on official record and was involved in three police shootings, one of which was fatal. He received two letters of reprimand for misconduct. On March 8, 2021, Chauvin was put on trial for unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter of Floyd before a jury in the Minnesota Fourth Judicial District Court. On April 20, he was convicted of the charges. On June 25, he was sentenced to years in prison (minus the 199 days' time served), with the possibility of supervised release after 15 years (two thirds of his sentence) contingent on factors such as good behavior.