Derek Chauvin

Chauvin was born in 1976.[6][7] His mother was a housewife and his father was a certified public accountant. At the age of seven, his parents divorced and were granted joint custody of him.[8]

Chauvin attended Park High School in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, but did not finish and later obtained a General Educational Development certificate.[9] He took food preparation courses at Dakota County Technical College and worked as a cook.[7][10] He served in the United States Army Reserve from 1996 to 2004,[11] including two stints in the military police between 1996 and 2000.[9][12][13] During that time, he also attended Inver Hills Community College from 1995 to 1999[10][11] and later transferred to Metropolitan State University where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in law enforcement in 2006.[9][11]

Chauvin was a 19-year Minneapolis Police Department veteran.[14] He received a medal for valor in 2006 for being one of several officers who fired on a suspect who pointed a shotgun at them, and another in 2008 for a domestic-violence incident in which he broke down a door and shot a suspect who reached for his pistol.[15][16] He received a commendation medal in 2008 after he and his partner tackled a fleeing suspect holding a pistol, and another in 2009 for single-handedly apprehending a group of gang members.[13]

Chauvin had 18 complaints on his official record, two of which ended in discipline, including official letters of reprimand.[17] He had been involved in three police shootings, one of which was fatal.[14][18][19][20] According to the former owner of El Nuevo Rodeo, a Latin nightclub, Chauvin had worked there off duty as security while George Floyd was also working as security, but was not certain whether they knew each other.[21][22] She also said he had sometimes used overaggressive tactics, responding to fights by spraying the crowd with mace instead of dealing with those who were fighting.[23]

On May 25, 2020, Chauvin was one of four officers involved in arresting George Floyd on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill at a market and was the field training officer for one of the other officers involved.[24] Security camera footage from a nearby business did not show Floyd resisting the arrest.[25][26] The criminal complaint stated that, based on body camera footage, Floyd repeatedly said he could not breathe while standing outside the police car, resisted getting in the car and fell down;[27] he went to the ground face down. While Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down on the street, Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for nearly eight minutes.[28][1] After Chauvin placed his knee on Floyd's neck, Floyd repeatedly said "I can't breathe", "Mama", and "please".[29] For part of the time, two other officers knelt on Floyd's back.[30] During the final two[31] minutes Floyd was motionless and had no pulse.[32] Several bystanders took videos which were widely circulated and broadcast.[29]

Chauvin and the other officers involved were fired the day following the incident.[33] While knee-to-neck restraints are allowed in Minnesota under certain circumstances, Chauvin's use of the technique has been widely criticized by law enforcement experts as excessive.[34][35][36] On June 23, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said that Chauvin had been trained in the dangers of positional asphyxiation, and characterized Floyd's death as murder.[37]

Chauvin married a real estate agent and photographer;[59] she is a Hmong refugee from Laos who competed in a "Mrs. Minnesota" beauty pageant in 2018.[60][61] She filed for divorce the day before he was arrested for Floyd's death.[62][63][64]

Following the murder charges against him, Chauvin and his wife were charged with multiple felony counts of tax evasion[63] related to allegedly fraudulent tax returns from 2014 to 2019.[65] The Washington County prosecutor's office announced on July 22, 2020 that Chauvin and his wife under-reported joint income by a total of $464,433, including more than $95,000 from Chauvin's off-duty security work.[66] The complaint also alleges failure to pay proper sales tax on a $100,000 BMW purchased in Minnesota in 2018, failure to declare income from Chauvin's wife's business and improperly accounted-for deductions on a rental home.[59]