The city of Minneapolis agreed to pay $8.9 million to settle two lawsuits on April 13. The lawsuits were filed by two Black people terrorized by former MPD officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of killing George Floyd in 2020 during an arrest by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes.
Chauvin knelt on the necks of both plaintiffs during two arrests in 2017. One of Chauvin’s victims was just a 14-year-old boy at the time of his assault. The other was a now-40-year-old woman. Both assaults occurred in 2017.
On June 25, 2017, Zoya Code was assaulted by Chauvin after the police were called to her home for a domestic dispute. Chauvin told Code she was under arrest and grabbed her arm as she pulled away. The New York Times reported that he pulled her to the ground face-first before kneeling on her back. Two officers carried her outside where she was again put face down on the ground and handcuffed. Chauvin knelt on her neck despite no resistance from Code as she pleaded, “Don’t kill me.”
“He just stayed on my neck,” she recalled. “Then he did. Just to shut me up,” she said.
Chauvin kneeled on her neck for more than four minutes. “He stayed on my neck and wouldn’t get off. But I survived.”
On Sept. 4, 2017, John Pope was also assaulted by Chauvin during an arrest. Pope’s mother called the police after an argument with her son. The lawsuit claimed that she was “clearly and obviously drunk.” She told Chauvin that her son had grabbed her but had no visible injuries.
Pope was lying on the floor in his bedroom talking on a cellphone when Chauvin entered and demanded he stand up. The teen responded that his mother was drunk. Video showed the ex-police officer hitting Pope twice in the head with a metal flashlight. He also grabbed him by the throat and choked the teenager until he lost consciousness.
Then Chauvin knelt on his neck for 15 minutes as he lay calmly on the floor as other officers stood…
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