Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison stated Monday (June 1) that he plans to prosecute the four cops involved in George Floyd’s death to “the highest degree of accountability.”
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death. The three other officers involved have not been charged yet.
“We are reviewing the evidence, and we are reviewing the law, and we are going to charge this case in a manner consistent with the highest level of accountability that the facts and the law will support,” Ellison told MSNBC.
He continued, “It is essential that this prosecution is viewed as just and fair. I don’t want to have to defend this prosecution from false accusations of rush to judgement or pressure by the public,” Ellison said. “We are reviewing all of the evidence. The public knows some things about the other officers, but there’s a whole body of evidence that we’re still reviewing and so we have to make sure that we look at the facts and the law.”
“This is justice. We’re going on justice and that’s what we’re going to do,” Ellison added. “I know that people are frustrated by the pacing, but I want to assure them that as a person who has dedicated my whole life to civil rights and justice, I am going to pursue justice vigorously, relentlessly, uncompromisingly.”