Ex-Minneapolis officer receives nearly 5 years on state charge for role in George Floyd’s killing

@ap.news FILE – This photo provided by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office in Minnesota on June 3, 2020, shows former Minneapolis Police Officer Tou Thao. U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson handed J. Alexander Kueng and Thao a victory when he ruled that the complex formulas for calculating their sentences will use the crime of involuntary manslaughter, rather than murder, as a starting point. Magnuson will sentence the men in back-to-back hearings Wednesday, July 27, 2022, after they were convicted of violating George Floyd’s civil rights when Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes as the 46-year-old Black man was handcuffed and facedown on the street on May 25, 2020. (Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Tou Thao, the last former Minneapolis police officer convicted in state court for his role in the killing of George Floyd, has been sentenced to 4 years and 9 months, even as he denied wrongdoing. Thao testified that he served as a “human traffic cone” when holding back concerned bystanders as former Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes as the Black man pleaded for his life on May 25, 2020. A bystander video captured Floyd’s fading cries of “I can’t breathe.” Judge Peter Cahill found Thao guilty in May of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Monday’s sentence will run concurrently with a 3 1/2-year sentence on a federal civil rights conviction.