George Floyd repeated that he could not breathe nearly 30 times before he lost consciousness and ultimately died, transcripts show.
By Breanna Edwards, ESSENCE
Transcripts from body camera footage related to the death of George Floyd shows the callousness with which the officers, particularly Derek Chauvin, handled the incident, as Floyd was held down with Chauvin’s knee on his neck asphyxiating him.
The records show that Floyd pleaded almost 30 times with officers that he couldn’t breathe.
“Let go of me, man, I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe,” Floyd said at one point. “Please, man. Please listen to me.”
His pleas, as we know, fell on uncaring ears.
At one point, when Floyd repeated that he could not breathe, J. Alexander Kueng responded, “You’re fine. You’re talking fine.”
Mere moments before he lost consciousness, Floyd says, “I’m through, I’m through. I’m claustrophobic. My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Everything hurts. I need some water or something, please. Please? I can’t breathe officer.”
Chauvin chillingly demands that he stop talking and yelling.
“You’re going to kill me, man,” Floyd insists.
“Then stop talking, stop yelling,” Chauvin callously repeats. “It takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk.”
According to CBS News, the transcripts note slightly different statements. In Thomas Lane’s body camera footage, Chauvin had said “it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk,” while in Kueng’s transcript, it was recorded as “takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to say that.”
Actual body camera footage of the incident has yet to be released.
All four officers involved in the case, which include Tou Thao, were fired. Chauvin is facing charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and third-degree manslaughter. He is currently being held on $1 million bond.
The other three officers are facing charges of aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder and second-degree manslaughter. They have all been released on bond since originally being taken into custody.
This article originally appeared in ESSENCE.
