Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik told Breitbart News on Friday that fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin should have been charged with first degree murder in the killing of George Floyd.
“I was was probably one of the first police chiefs or commissioners around the country that basically came out and said it’s wrong,” said Kerik on Friday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour and special guest host Ed Martin.
Kerik continued, “It’s 100 percent wrong. This guy was in handcuffs. He was faced down. He was not resisting. He was no threat to that cop or any other cop. It was clear that he couldn’t breathe. He was in distress. It was also clear to other people. You had four or five people around him that were yelling at the cop to get him up and get off of him because he can’t breathe.”
Kerik went on, “‘You’re gonna kill him,’ they said. The guy even said, ‘You’re trying to kill me.’ Well, guess what? At the end of the day, he did kill him, and you cannot say that the guy didn’t know what he was doing, because he had at least four or five people — other than the victim himself — telling him what he was doing.”
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Chauvin was arrested on Friday and charged with third degree murder and manslaughter.
“I was a bit shocked today when the DA said that they’re charging [Chauvin] with third degree murder,” Kerik stated. “Given the look of this, in my eyes what was clear intent, I would have thought they would have charged him with first degree murder.”
Kerik remarked, “The force used was completely unjustifiable. He knew without a shadow of a doubt that the guy was in distress, and he was causing it. He refused to stop even after he was told by numerous people to stop. It’s bad.”
“[Chauvin] had 18 prior civilian complaints,” noted Kerik. “One of the officers that was with him had eight prior civilian complaints. I’m not sure how those things were investigated, who investigated them, [or] what kind of complaints they were. That number’s pretty high.”
Kerik concluded, “Given this guy’s conduct and given the way he acted, he was cold. He was nonchalant. He was just looking around, not a care in the world. This arrogance, if you will. I don’t know. Somebody needs to take a look at those prior investigations [and] prior complaints.”
Breitbart News Tonight broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot channel 125 weeknights from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern or 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific.
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter.
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