No one would say the George Floyd case hasn't received a lot of attention, but I think the Minneapolis Police Department's first statement about what happened, issued a year ago tonight, has been largely overlooked:
Man Dies After Medical Incident During Police Interaction
May 25, 2020 (Minneapolis)
On Monday evening, shortly after 8:00 pm, officers from the Minneapolis Police Department responded to the 3700 block of Chicago Avenue South on a report of a forgery in progress. Officers were advised that the suspect was sitting on top of a blue car and appeared to be under the influence.
Two officers arrived and located the suspect, a male believed to be in his 40s, in his car. He was ordered to step from the car. After he got out, he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress. Officers called for an ambulance. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance where he died a short time later.
At no time were weapons of any type used by anyone involved in this incident.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has been called in to investigate this incident at the request of the Minneapolis Police Department.
No officers were injured in the incident.
Body worn cameras were on and activated during this incident.
The GO number associated with this case is 20-140629.
I hope we can agree that significant details have been left out of the above account. Perhaps the police would say those details were unknown when this statement was released. But I'm thinking the most significant detail unknown to the police was that citizens had recorded the "incident" with their cell phones. Were it not for that detail, the above statement, which has been consigned to the Internet Archive, would have been the MPD's last word about what had happened in addition to its first.
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