The US Department of Justice on Friday announced that a total of four former officers from the Minneapolis police department have been slammed with charges relating to civil rights crimes by a federal grand jury. The officers, including former police officer Derek Chauvin, were convicted for the murder of African American George Floyd in 2020.

The remaining officers, who were also present while Floyd was being arrested in May 2020, include Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng. All the officers are also scheduled to face a trial later this year.

Keung and Thao have been served with charges due to their lack of intervention to curb the use of unreasonable force. On the other hand, a common charge has been laid on all four former officers, including Chauvin, relating to not providing any medical assistance to someone who was in a “clear need”, reported AFP.

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The federal charges unsealed on Friday are separate from those brought against the former officers by the state of Minnesota.

The federal indictment accuses Chauvin of depriving Floyd of his constitutional right “to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer.”

The May 2020 incident was documented by numerous witnesses through phone-recorded videos, which triggered mass protests across the country, challenging the increased racial profiling and police brutality. 

A separate federal indictment charged Chauvin with using unreasonable force against a 14-year-old Minneapolis resident in a September 4, 2017 incident.

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“Chauvin, without legal justification, held the teenager by the throat and struck the teenager multiple times in the head with a flashlight,” the indictment alleges, resulting in “bodily injury to the teenager”, reported AFP.

“Chauvin held his knee on the neck and the upper back of the teenager even after the teenager was lying prone, handcuffed, and unresisting, also resulting in bodily injury,” it said.