KEY POINTS

  • George Floyd died last week under police custody in Minneapolis, sparking outrage
  • Police Chief Medaria Arrandondo said he believes the four officers involved were equally responsible
  • Protests about Floyd’s death have become violent

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said that he believes all four officers involved in the death of George Floyd should be held equally responsible.

Arrandondo told CNN during an interview alongside Floyd’s family that the other officers on the scene were “complicit” in Floyd’s death because they did not intervene.

“Silence and inaction, you're complicit. If there was one solitary voice that would have intervened and acted – that’s what I would have hoped,” Arradondo said. “Unfortunately, that did not occur.”

Arradondo made the comments at a makeshift memorial on the site of Floyd’s arrest. Floyd died on May 25 after being arrested for an alleged forgery. Footage of the arrest showed Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck as Floyd pleaded with other officers saying, “I can’t breathe.”

Derek Chauvin has since been fired from the Minneapolis Police Department and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

In the interview, Arradondo removed his hat as he addressed the Floyd family while standing among other people gathered to pay tribute to Floyd.

Arrandondo told the Floyd family that he does not see a distinction between what Chauvin did and the silence and non-intervention of the three other officers.

“I want you to know that my decision to fire all four officers was not based on some sort of hierarchy. Mr. Floyd died in our hands,” Arrandondo said.

He also said that the FBI was investigating the incident and that the decisions about what charges may be filed will come from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.

“I did not need days or weeks or months or processes or bureaucracies to tell me what occurred out here last Monday was wrong,” he added.

Minneapolis has been gripped with violent protests since Floyd’s death as demonstrators condemn the killing of African Americans.

Initially conciliatory during the early days of protests, local officials have since stiffened their tone. The Minnesota National Guard has been deployed to Minneapolis to help quell the unrest.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who fired the four officers involved in Floyd’s death and called for murder charges to be filed, called for the violence to stop.

“There is no honor in burning down your city,” Frey said.

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