Tonight Gov. Tim Walz announced that he’s asked MN Attorney General Keith Ellison to take the lead in the George Floyd case, at the request of the Floyd family. Walz called Ellison “the people’s lawyer” and the right step to getting justice for the Floyd family.
Ellison said he accepted the challenge with honor. He will work with Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman who announced on Thursday that he was charging former officer Derek Chauvin third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the fatal arrest of Floyd on Memorial Day.
Freeman has been the subject of criticism for his handling of past cases involving police shootings of unarmed Black men, most notably the Jamar Clark case in 2015. Freeman chose not to file charges against the police officers involved in Clark’s shooting.
Today at a large protest at the State Capitol in St. Paul, one of the demands of the protesters was for Gov. Walz to appoint a special prosecutor to handle the case. Another demand was for the other three officers involved in Floyd’s death to be charged. Freeman said on Thursday that he anticipates further charges will be filed against those officers in the coming days.
The MSR will continue to follow this story as it develops.
Reach the staff at the MSR at msrnewsonline@spokesman-recorder.com.