Leaked footage shows George Floyd begging police not to shoot him minutes before his death by police officers in Minneapolis on May 25.
“OK, Mr. Officer, please don’t shoot me. Please, man,” Floyd said when officers approached as he sat in his car. One officer had a gun drawn and aimed at Floyd’s head.
“I just lost my mom, man,” Floyd said in the footage first obtained by The Daily Mail. “Please don’t shoot me, Mr. Officer, please.”
Floyd also apologised throughout the video as the cops cursed at him.
“Put your fucking hand up there,” one officer ordered. “Jesus Christ, keep your fucking hands on the wheel.”
When the police attempted to put Floyd in the back of a police vehicle, he warned them that he was claustrophobic. Floyd was eventually forced to the ground. Then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin shoved a knee into his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds as Floyd cried out: “I can’t breathe.”
Bystanders urged other police officers at the scene to intervene, but they refused.
Floyd was pronounced dead a short time later, kicking off protests and unrest around the nation that continue to this day. Chauvin and three other officers were fired and all are facing criminal charges.
Portions of the video also aired on MSNBC, above.