George Floyd 'I can't breathe' audio released
An audio transcript of George Floyd's last moments has been released by authorities in Minneapolis, as questions are mounting in Phoenix, Arizona, over a disturbingly similar police killing in 2017.
Floyd, 46, died on May 25 when Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.
On Tuesday, during a hearing for one of the three officers involved in Floyd's death, Thomas Lane, the audio of his bodycamera was released.
In it, Floyd explains that he is frightened of the police after being shot previously by officers.
He tells them he is claustrophobic, and starts panicking.
He is heard exclaiming that he is going to die, and, terrified, calling out for his mother.
Later, according to the transcript, he said: "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
He called for his mother and children several more times.
Throughout his arrest, Floyd said "I can't breathe" more than 20 times. The officers can be heard telling him to "relax", and that he was doing "fine" and "talking fine".
At one point, as Floyd insisted they were going to kill him, Mr Chauvin shouted: "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
According to the transcript, Floyd's last words were: "They're going to kill me. They're going to kill me. I can't breathe."
The transcript was submitted on Tuesday by Mr Lane to have the charges that he aided and abetted in Mr Floyd's murder thrown out by a judge.
He and the other three officers involved - Mr Chauvin, Tou Thao and Alexander Kueng - were all fired from the Minneapolis police force one day after Floyd's death and charged in his murder. They each face up to 40 years behind bars.
Mr Chauvin faces second- and third-degree murder charges.
Mr Thao and Mr Kueng, like Mr Lane, have been charged with aiding and abetting a murder.
The case has reawakened interest in an incident in Phoenix, Arizona, in January 2017.
In that incident Muhammad Muhaymin Jr, 43, cried out "I can't breathe" several times before his death.
"Please Allah," said Muhaymin, who had a history of mental illness, and was arrested for taking his emotional support chihuahua into the restroom of a community support centre.
"Allah? He's not going to help you now," one of the officers struggling to cuff him says. "Just relax."
"Please help me," the man says, in between screams. "Please."
"Relax!" an officer says. "Stop resisting."
The Muhaymin family is suing the city for $10 million in a wrongful death suit that names 10 Phoenix police officers as defendants and is expected to go to jury trial early next year.
"In general, sending out armed police officers with guns to deal with somebody who's having a mental breakdown — it's a recipe for disaster," said David Chami, the family's lawyer.
