George Floyd Update: Floyd Worked With Former White Police Officer Charged For His Death

A former club and restaurant owner in Minneapolis said that George Floyd, the black man who died when a white police officer kneeled on his neck, worked with the police officer charged with his death as part of the club’s security team.

Derek Chauvin, who was fired for his actions, was charged with third-degree murder Friday.

The club, El Nuevo Rodeo, was in southeastern Minneapolis.

Maya Santamaria, who owned the club for nearly 20 years before selling it in 2019, said the two men were employed and often overlapped shifts. However, she cautioned she did not know if the men knew each other because the club employed several security guards, some of whom were off-duty police officers.

“Chauvin was our off-duty police for almost the entirety of the 17 years that we were open,” Santamaria told St. Paul ABC-affiliate KSTP. “They were working together at the same time. It's just that Chauvin worked outside and the security guards were inside.”

Santamaria said she didn’t recognize the two men when she was first shown the video of Floyd’s fatal arrest.

“My friend sent me [the video] and said this is your guy who used to work for you and I said, ‘It's not him,’” Santamaria said. “And then they did the closeup and that's when I said, ‘Oh my God, that's him.’ I didn't recognize George as one of our security guys because he looked really different lying there like that.”

Minneapolis City Council member Andrea Jenkins confirmed Santamaria’s statements, telling MSNBC the two “were coworkers for a very long time.”

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced the charges against Chauvin Friday afternoon following two days of violent protests that ripped through the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and triggered demonstrations elsewhere in the country. The complaint charges Chauvin with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He was arrested earlier in the day.

The confrontation with Floyd began with a 911 call from Cup Foods, alleging a man had paid for a purchase with a counterfeit $20 bill. Police stopped a car carrying Floyd and two others. Floyd was ordered out of the car. When officers tried to get the suspect into the squadrol, he allegedly resisted. Video indicates Chauvin had his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly 9 minutes, including nearly 3 minute safter the suspect has stopped breathing.