Former police officer sentenced to 2.5 years for Floyd killing
Al JazeeraThomas Lane is one of four Minneapolis officers who have been charged with the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. A former police officer was sentenced to two and half years in prison on federal charges stemming from his role in the killing of George Floyd, an incident that sparked protests around the globe against police brutality and racism. Thomas Lane was sentenced on Thursday for depriving Floyd of medical care as he lay dying under officer Derek Chauvin’s knee in May 2020. “The fact that you did not get up and remove Mr Chauvin when Mr Floyd became unconscious is a violation of the law.” The sentencing came more than two years after the killing of Floyd, who was Black, sparked protests in Minneapolis and around the world over racial injustice in policing, and launched a national reckoning on race. During the trial, federal prosecutors argued that the three police officers knew from their training and from “basic human decency” that they had a duty to help Floyd as he begged for his life before falling limp beneath Chauvin’s knee.