The fourth and final former Minneapolis cop has been sentenced to 57 months in prison for his role in the 2020 murder of George Floyd.
The sentence imposed on 37-year-old Tou Thao by the district judge was six months longer than the one proposed by Minneapolis prosecutors.
“I was hoping for a little more remorse, regret, an acknowledgment of some responsibility. And preach less,” Judge Peter Cahill told Thao during sentencing on Monday.
It comes three months after Thao, a nine-year veteran of the police force, was found guilty of complicity in second-degree manslaughter.
Thao testified that he served as a “human traffic cone” when he held back concerned bystanders who gathered as fellow cop Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly ten minutes — eventually killing him.
Fourth and final former Minneapolis cop Tou Thao has been sentenced to 57 months in prison for his role in the 2020 murder of George Floyd
Kueng and his fellow officers Tou Thao and Thomas Lane were previously found guilty of violating Floyd’s civil rights by failing to intervene when Chauvin knelt on the back of Floyd’s neck. All four are pictured during the 2020 incident
Thao was also sentenced to three and a half years last year on federal charges that he stripped Floyd of his civil rights. Police officers involved in Floyd’s murder have faced federal and state charges – both face jail time, but can be served concurrently.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and other prosecutors hearing state charges had asked the judge to sentence Thao to 51 months in prison.
In his statement of 177 pages, Cahill said Thao’s actions separated Chauvin and two other former officers from the crowd, including an emergency medical technicianallowing his colleagues to continue restraining Floyd and deter bystanders from providing medical attention.
“There is evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Thao’s actions were objectively unreasonable from the perspective of a reasonable police officer, given the totality of the circumstances,” Cahill wrote.
He concluded, “Thao’s actions were even more unreasonable in light of the fact that he had a duty to intervene to stop the other officers’ disproportionate use of force and was trained to provide medical assistance.”
Lawyers for Thao were not immediately available for comment on Monday.
Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder in 2021. The other two officers, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng, held Floyd’s knees and buttocks while Chauvin knelt on his neck.
Former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao (left) and his attorney arrive for sentencing for violating George Floyd’s civil rights outside the federal courthouse in July 2022
Thao was also sentenced to three and a half years last year on federal charges that he stripped Floyd of his civil rights
Minneapolis police addressed a pattern of constitutional rights violations and discrimination against black and Native American people following an investigation into the murder of George Floyd (pictured)
Last year, Lane (right) and Kueng (left) pleaded guilty in state court to being an accessory to second-degree manslaughter. Lane was sentenced to three and a half years in prison, while Kueng was sentenced to three years
Thao previously rejected a state indictment plea, claiming that “it would be lying” to plead guilty when he didn’t think he was wrong.
Instead, he agreed to let Cahill decide the case based on evidence from Chauvin’s 2021 murder trial and the 2022 federal civil rights trial of Lane and Kueng.
Last year, Lane and Kueng pleaded guilty in state court to being an accessory to second-degree manslaughter. Lane was sentenced to three and a half years in prison, while Kueng was sentenced to three years.
In a federal trial last year, Kueng and Lane were also found guilty of violating Floyd’s civil rights.
Lane was sentenced to two and a half years and Kueng to three years in prison, concurrent with the state sentence.
Chauvin was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison for the accidental second-degree murder of Floyd. Last year, he also received a concurrent 21-year sentence on federal charges of violating Floyd’s civil rights.
Inmates in Minnesota generally serve two-thirds of their sentences in prison and one-third on parole. There is no parole in the federal system, but inmates can shave time off their sentences with good behavior.