Four Minneapolis police officers have been fired in connection to the death of a Black man after a viral video showed the man being pinned down by his neck.
George Floyd, 46, was taken into custody Monday by the officers, who were responding to a call of a forgery in progress. In the video shot by a passerby, Floyd groans and repeatedly says “I can’t breathe” to the white officer who held him down on the pavement with his knee.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Jacob Frey confirmed the four officers involved in the incident had been “terminated” by Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo.
“This is the right call,” he tweeted.
At a press conference earlier, Frey had described the incident as “completely and utterly messed-up.”
“I believe what I saw and what I saw is wrong on every level,” he said. “Being Black in America should not be a death sentence.”
The FBI has said it will investigate the incident.
The incident echoed that of Eric Garner, a Black man who was choked to death while being arrested in New York City in 2014.
