Derek Chauvin was released after posting a million dollar bond.
White police officer Derek Chauvin , the main defendant in the asphyxiating murder of African-American George Floyd , was released today after posting a million-dollar bail, in a controversial resolution that could spark new anti-racism protests like the ones that were unleashed. after the murder, whose filming toured the world.
Chauvin was released after posting a $ 1 million bond, according to court documents cited by the AFP news agency.
The 44-year-old uniformed man will be tried in March along with three former colleagues accused of complicity in Floyd's death, which occurred on May 25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes and killed him by suffocation. .
The images taken by passers-by, transmitted over the internet, provoked widespread rejection both in the country and around the world.
His arrest, four days later, contributed to the calm in this northern city of the United States, shaken by several nights of unrest.
Since then, Chauvin has been detained in a high-security prison in Minnesota, which he only left on September 11 to appear in court.
He appeared in court that day along with his co-defendants, Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, who were released on bail weeks ago.
All four men called for the charges against them to be dropped, claiming that they had used reasonable force in front of a fighting man.
Floyd is “probably dead from a fentanyl overdose,” Derek Chauvin's attorney said, according to court records.
This argument provoked the popular ire and in particular of the Floyd family.
“This is crazy. He died from a knee in the neck, it is the autopsy that says so,” said his brother Philonise Floyd and his nephew Brandon Williams after learning of a ruling that seems like another avalanche of violence and repudiation .