Dispatcher unafraid of being 'snitch' reports Floyd arrest
Updated: 6:30 p.m.
A 911 dispatcher who was apparently watching in real time as a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into the neck of George Floyd called a supervisor to tell him what she saw, not caring if it made her look like a “snitch," according to a recording of the call made public Monday.
In the call, the dispatcher called a police sergeant and said what she was seeing on live video looked “different” and that she wanted to let him know about it. The dispatcher was in a 911 call center at the time and was watching the video from there, according to a city spokesperson. It wasn’t immediately clear which cameras were shooting the video that she was watching.
“I don’t know, you can call me a snitch if you want to, but we have the cameras up for 320's call. ... Um, I don’t know if they had used force or not. They got something out of the back of the squad, and all of them sat on this man. So, I don’t know if they needed you or not, but they haven’t said anything to me yet,” says the dispatcher, whose name is edited out of the recording. When the dispatcher references “320’s call,” she means squad car 320 — the one assigned to former officers J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, who were the first to respond to the scene.
“Yeah, they haven’t said anything, unless it’s just a takedown which doesn’t count,” the sergeant said. “But ... I'll find out.”
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“No problem,” the dispatcher said. “We don’t get to ever see it. So when we see it, we’re just like whoa. Ah, well? It looks a little different.”
A Minneapolis city spokesperson said that the city’s 911 dispatchers have access to some surveillance cameras throughout the city, and that “this particular dispatcher was watching a surveillance camera located at the intersection of Chicago Avenue and 38th Street,” where Floyd was pinned to the ground by an officer.
Under the Police Department's use of force policy, officers are not required to notify supervisors if the use of force was a takedown technique, but supervisor notification is required during all other force incidents involving injury or alleged injury. According to the policy, the officer must stay on the scene and immediately tell a supervisor of the force that was used, and supervisors conduct a force review.
Floyd, a black man who was handcuffed, died May 25 after Derek Chauvin, a white officer, used his knee to pin Floyd to the ground. Chauvin, who kept his knee on Floyd’s neck even after he said he couldn't breathe and stopped moving, has been charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter.
The three other officers, Thomas Lane, Kueng and Thao, have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter. All four officers were fired.
Widely seen video recorded by a bystander shows Chauvin’s actions and Floyd, with his face smashed against the street as he gasps for air. It also shows Thao, who was facing the bystanders. In the bystander video, Lane and Kueng are obscured by a squad car.
Earlier, the city released the transcript of the call from a clerk at Cup Foods who reported that a customer used counterfeit money to purchase cigarettes and returned to his car visibly intoxicated about 30 minutes before the dispatcher’s call.
The 911 transcripts from two bystanders who called police were also made public Monday. One is from a bystander who said an officer “pretty much just killed this guy that wasn't resisting arrest. He had his knee on the dude's neck the whole time.”
The caller goes on to say Floyd “stopped breathing ... He was already in handcuffs ... I don't even know if [he’s] dead for sure, but dude was not responsive when the ambulance came and got him, and the officer that was jut out here left, the one that actually just murdered the kid in front of everybody.”
The operator asks if the caller would like a sergeant, and the caller says, “Yeah, like that was bogus what they just did.”
A second 911 call transcript made public is from a person who works as a first responder.
“I literally watched police officers not take a pulse and not do anything to save a man ... I literally have it on video camera [clears throat]. I just happened to be on a walk so, this dude, this, they [expletive] killed him,” says the caller.
That person also expresses willingness to speak with a supervisor, but the call is disconnected and the operator tried to reach the caller again four times over the next two minutes, without success, the transcript says.
In the bystander video, a woman can be heard in the background saying she is a Minneapolis firefighter, and repeatedly asking the officers to take Floyd's pulse.
MPR News reporter Matt Sepic contributed to this story.