George Floyd and the ex-Minneapolis police officer who killed him may have known each other, according to a report by KSTP.com.
The former owner of a south Minneapolis nightclub says ex-cop George Floyd and Derek Chauvin worked overlapping shifts as security at her club until the end of last year.
“Chauvin was our off-duty police for almost the entirety of the 17 years that we were open,” said Maya Santamaria, former owner of El Nuevo Rodeo club on Lake Street.
She wasn’t sure if the two men knew each other. “They were working together at the same time, it’s just that Chauvin worked outside and the security guards were inside.”
Santamaria said she sold the club a few months ago. Santamaria was among millions worldwide who viewed the horrific video that showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck until he died.
“I didn’t recognize George as one of our security guys because he looked really different lying there like that,” she said.
She also didn’t recognize Chauvin at first. “My friend sent me (the video) and said this is your guy who used to work for you and I said, ‘It’s not him.’ And then they did the closeup and that’s when I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s him,'”
Chauvin, 44, is one of four officers fired from the police force a day after Floyd’s death. Chauvin responded to a 911 call of a “forgery in process” on Monday – along with ex-cops Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, and J Alexander Kueng.
Violent protests continued for the 3rd night in south Minneapolis.
