A former Minneapolis police officer was sentenced to nearly five years in prison Monday for his role in the death of George Floyd.
In what was the final sentencing of the case, Tou Thao was sentenced to spend four years and nine months in a state prison for aiding and abetting the second-degree manslaughter of Floyd in May 2020, The New York Times reported.
A judge in Minneapolis has sentenced the former police officer who held back bystanders as other officers restrained George Floyd to four years and nine months in state prison. This is the final sentencing in the killing of Floyd. https://t.co/9p3n40EQA7 pic.twitter.com/cTWcI7iASh
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 7, 2023
Floyd died in May 2020 after Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng restrained him on a sidewalk in Minneapolis. Though Thao did not physically restrain Floyd himself, he held back onlookers who expressed concern over Floyd’s condition as Chauvin pressed his knee into the neck and back of Floyd, for more than nine minutes, the outlet noted.
Floyd’s death set off protests in the summer of 2020 and sparked “Defund the Police” movements across the country.
“Obviously, on that day, we didn’t intend on – I didn’t intend on doing any malice or anything like that, or try to hurt anyone. That was never my intent. I did the best I thought I could,” Thao said at his sentencing. “Obviously the outcome didn’t come out the way I wanted it, so I’ll leave it at that,” he continued, according to CNN.
His comments were not received well by Hennepin County Judge Peter A. Cahill who told Thao he was hoping to hear “a little more remorse, regret, acknowledgement of some responsibility” for the death of Floyd.
“Suffice it to say that I think your culpability is less than Mr. Chauvin, but well above Mr. Kueng and Mr. Lane, as an experienced senior officer who was in the best position to save George Floyd. Accordingly, it’s my belief that a sentence at the top of the (sentencing) range would be condign punishment,” Cahill stated, according to the outlet. (RELATED: Derek Chauvin Sentenced To 22 And A Half Years In Death Of George Floyd)
Already serving a three-and-a-half-year federal sentence after his conviction in February 2022 for violating Floyd’s civil rights, Thao will serve his state sentence concurrently with his federal sentence, CNN reported.