Former Minneapolis police officers J Alexander Kueng and Tao Thao were sentenced Wednesday in federal court for violating George Floyd’s civil rights during his May 2020 killing. 

Kueng was sentenced to three years and Thao got 3 1/2 years. The judge said that the penalties reflected their level of culpability in a case that sparked worldwide protests as part of a reckoning over racial injustice.

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They were convicted in February of two counts of violating Floyd’s civil rights. The jury found they deprived the 46-year-old Black man of medical care and failed to stop Derek Chauvin as he knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes.

As Chauvin pinned Floyd’s neck, Kueng held Floyd’s back, Officer Thomas Lane held his feet and Thao kept bystanders back during the killing, which was recorded by bystanders.

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Who is J Alexander Kueng? 

Kueng is convincted with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter and faced a federal judge.  He is the youngest of the four officers who faced charges.

Kueng is Black. He was partnered with Lane that day. He was raised by his mother in north Minneapolis.

The New York Times in 2020, quoting his family, said that Kueng is the son of a white mother and Nigerian father. He wanted to become a police officer to bridge the gap between police and the Black community. 

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His personnel file, which says he speaks, reads and writes Russian, did not list any disciplinary actions.

Kueng was a 2018 graduate of the University of Minnesota, where he worked part-time in campus security.

He also worked nearly three years as a theft-prevention officer at the former Macy’s in downtown Minneapolis. And he worked short stints as a stocker at the downtown Target store, and as a youth baseball and soccer coach in Brooklyn Center.

Kueng and family members traveled to Haiti to volunteer after the 2010 earthquake, according to relatives and his attorney.

Who is Tao Thao? 

Thao, a Hmong American, had been with the Minneapolis Police Department for around 11 years, starting as a community service officer, a program meant to foster diversity by grooming potential cops. He had been a full-fledged police officer for more than eight years.

Thao joined the force part time in 2008 while attending North Hennepin Community College. He was laid off temporarily at the end of 2009 during a budget crunch. He also previously worked as a security guard at Boston Scientific facilities in the Minneapolis area, as a supermarket stocker and as a trainer at a McDonald’s.

City records show six complaints were filed against Thao. He was also the subject of a 2017 federal lawsuit accusing him and another officer of excessive force. In the lawsuit, Lamar Ferguson claimed that in 2014, Thao and his partner stopped him and beat him while Ferguson was on his way to his girlfriend’s house. The suit was settled for $25,000.