The head of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police condemned fired police officer Derek Chauvin for pressing his knee on George Floyd’s neck — and said cops in the state are not trained to use the technique.
“I think there’s a national narrative that police officers in Minnesota are being trained in the technique that Derek Chauvin used and that is simply not the case, it is the furthest from the truth that exists,” Andy Skoogman said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“We did condemn the actions of the officer, not only the technique used by Derek Chauvin but the lack of empathy shown by the other officers on the scene,” he added.
Skoogman praised Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo for quickly firing Chauvin and the three other officers who participated in detaining Floyd last Monday.
Floyd died after Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, but the other three officers haven’t been charged.
“Maybe lay folks don’t understand but the ability to terminate an officer that quickly is unprecedented, it doesn’t happen very much,” Skoogman said.
Fox News host Chris Wallace asked him whether he thought Chauvin would have been fired without video evidence of the encounter, because a police report describes Floyd as “resisting arrest.”
“I believe cell phone videos are game-changers … they weed out the bad apples,” Skoogman said. “Video is definitely the key in this case as it is in so many other cases in this day and age.”