Ex-police officer Thomas Lane lashes out on hot mic as he’s sentenced to three years for George Floyd killing
Thomas Lane is also serving 30 months in a federal prison in Colorado for violating Floyd’s civil rights
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Former Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane has been sentenced to three years in prison as part of a plea deal on a manslaughter charge for the killing of George Floyd.
Lane pleaded guilty in May to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s 2020 murder.
He is currently serving 30 months in a federal prison in Colorado on separate charges for violating Floyd’s civil rights. His will serve his sentences simultaneously.
Lane was caught complaining on a hot mic near the end of the sentencing hearing.
“I gotta register as a predatory offender? What the f*** is that?” Lane asked his attorney, Earl Gray.
Mr Gray said he wasn’t sure, but that he would “look into it.”
“That’s what Chauvin has to do, so if I have a minimal role why the f*** do I gotta do that? Jesus Christ,” Lane replied, clearly frustrated.
Kim Hyatt, a reporter at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, later clarified with Mr Gray and learned that Lane would not have to register.
Lane was one of four Minneapolis police officers implicated in Floyd's death. Derek Chauvin was ultimately found guilty of murdering Floyd and violating his civil rights. He has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.
Former police officers Tou Thao and J Alexander Keung will also go to trial after rejecting plea deals in August.
Both men were sentenced in federal court for violating Floyd's civil rights. Keung was sentenced to three years in prison, while Thao received three and a half.
Floyd was killed by Chauvin, who knelt on the man's neck for nine and a half minutes. Floyd called out that he couldn't breathe, but Chauvin did not let up. The other officers — Lane, Keung, and Thao — surrounded Chauvin and ensured angry bystanders witnesses the event could not get involved.
While the group successfully stopped bystanders from saving Floyd, they did not stop the crowd from shooting video. Those videos — along with numerous videos and stories of other unarmed Black men and women being killed by police officers — sparked the 2020 racial justice protests that dominated the late spring through the early fall of that year.