MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis was seen on a bystander’s video pleading that he could not breathe as a white officer knelt on his neck.
The officer kept his kept his knee on the man for several minutes after the man stopped moving.
The death Monday night 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 Facebook post.
“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.
AP reports, the man who died was identified as George Floyd by Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights and personal injury attorney who said he had been hired by Floyd’s family.
