Prosecutors Looking To Charge Four Officers With Third Degree Murder In George Floyd’s Death

According to NBC News, a motion was filed on Thursday for the charges by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.

Initially, Derek Chauvin was charged with second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter for his role in Floyd’s death last May.

Chauvin’s legal team was successful in getting the third-degree murder charge dismissed entirely, for lack of probable cause because, as it was stated in the motion, it could only be applied “in situations in which the defendant’s actions … were not specifically directed at that particular person whose death occurred.”

Attorney General Ellison argued that the Minneapolis Court of Appeals recently upheld a third-degree murder charge against the former officer Mohamed Noor in the controversial shooting death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond.

In Noor’s case, the appeals court ruled that “third-degree murder may occur even if the death-causing act endangered only one person,” the motion stated.

“Because the decision in Noor is precedential and now provides this court with clear guidance regarding the elements of third-degree murder, the State respectfully requests that the court reinstate the third-degree murder charge,” Ellison’s motion read.

He is asking that third-degree murder either be reinstated for Derek Chauvin or that his complaint be amended to include the charge. Ellison is also asking the court to include the charge on the amended complaints against the other three officers allegedly involved in Floyd’s death: Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng. The three are currently facing charges of aiding and abetting murder and aiding and abetting manslaughter.