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‘Please Don’t Shoot Me … I Just Lost My Mom,’ George Floyd Sobbed To Cops Shortly Before Death, According To Newly Leaked Video
George Floyd can be seen apologizing to Minneapolis police officers and asking them "What'd we do?" in the moments leading up to his fatal arrest.
George Floyd begged Minneapolis police officers not to shoot him or lock him inside a squad car as they hauled him out of his vehicle shortly before his death, newly leaked footage shows.
The partial clip, published by British tabloid The Daily Mail, opens with police officer Thomas Lane approaching Floyd while he’s sitting in a parked vehicle. The video contains body camera footage from both Lane and J. Alexander Kueng.
Floyd, who was in the driver’s seat, apologized as Lane drew a gun and ordered him to put his hands on his head in the nearly nine-minute clip. He uttered “I’m sorry” multiple times.
“What’d we do?” a bewildered Floyd asked Lane.
Floyd had allegedly used a counterfeit $20 bill at a nearby store.
Panicked, and on the verge of tears, Floyd can be heard pleading for his life before Lane and Kueng hauled him out of the vehicle.
“Please don’t shoot me, please man,” Floyd said. “I just lost my mom, man.”
Floyd sobbed as he exited his vehicle and handcuffs were placed on him. As police led him to the squad car, he told the officers he was “scared” and had anxiety.
“I don’t want to go in,” Floyd said. “I’m claustrophobic.”
Lane can later be overheard questioning Derek Chauvin — the officer seen in bystander video kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes — about rolling the unarmed Black man onto his side. Floyd continued to howl wildly, repeatedly telling police, “I can’t breathe.”
“Then stop talking, stop yelling,” Chauvin said at one point, according to previously released transcripts of the body camera footage. “It takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk.”
Floyd said he couldn’t breathe at least 20 times, according to transcripts of the fatal arrest. He also told police “I’m not a bad guy” and “I just had COVID.”
Moments later, Floyd was motionless on the concrete under Chauvin’s knee.
"The police officers approached him with guns drawn, simply because he was a Black man,” attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Floyd's family, said in a statement. “As this video shows, he never posed any threat. The officers' contradictions continue to build. If not for the videos, the world might never have known about the wrongs committed against George Floyd."
Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill previously prohibited the media from publishing the body camera footage. In July, a number of outlets, including the New York Times, the Associated Press, CBS News, and CNN filed a motion that would allow them to make the footage public, according to court documents obtained by Oxygen.com.
Cahill later lifted the gag order and ordered the footage be made available to reporters by courthouse appointment only. However, the only way to view the video exhibits was in person.
It’s unclear how Lane and Kueng’s body camera footage were leaked. The Daily Mail hasn’t explained how the clips were obtained. Video of the newly leaked footage garnered more than 2 million views on YouTube approximately 24 hours after being published.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who’s prosecuting the case, denied the leak originated from within his office.
"The prosecution team is not the source of the leak,” Ellison told Oxygen.com in a statement. “We will continue to take the strictest precautions to ensure a fair trial.”
Floyd’s death sparked countrywide protests and reignited a fierce national conversation around systemic racism and police brutality.
Chauvin, Lane, Thao, and Kueng were fired and arrested in the aftermath of Floyd’s death. Chauvin faces second-degree murder charges and remains incarcerated, according to Hennepin County jail records.
Lane, Thao, and Kueng, who have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder, have all been released pending trial. Lane and Thao’s attorneys are working to have the case dismissed. Kueng’s legal team has also indicated he’ll plead not guilty, according to previous court filings.
Floyd’s family has also since filed a civil suit against the four former officers and the city of Minneapolis.
