Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has announced that Attorney General Keith Ellison will take the lead in the prosecution of the former cop charged in the death of George Floyd while in police custody, according to reports.
Walz said Sunday that he decided to hand over the case to Ellison from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office at the urging of Floyd’s family, community activists and some members of the Minneapolis City Council, the Star Tribune reported.
“This decision is one that I feel takes us in that direction and the step to start getting the justice for George Floyd,” the governor said.
“When I spoke to the Floyd family they were very clear: They wanted the system to work for them,” Walz said. “They wanted to believe that there was trust and they wanted to feel like the facts would be heard and justice would be served.”
Ten members representing Minneapolis in the state House also asked Walz in a letter to transfer the case to Ellison, NBC News reported.
“Unfortunately, our constituents, especially constituents of color, have lost faith in the ability of Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to fairly and impartially investigate and prosecute these cases,” the letter said.
Ex-cop Derek Chauvin was charged Friday with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Three other officers who were at the scene May 25 — Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao — also have been fired from the force and remain under investigation.
Ellison, a Democrat who represented Minneapolis in Congress from 2007 to 2019, said he was accepting the lead with “a large degree of humility and a great seriousness.”
“We are going to bring to bear all the resources necessary to achieve justice in this case,” he said in a tweet.
Freeman said earlier Sunday that he asked for Ellison’s assistance.
“There have been recent developments in the facts of the case where the help and expertise of the Attorney General would be valuable,” Freeman said in a statement, according to the Star Tribune.
Ellison told reporters that he expects to work constructively with Freeman.
“The governor has asked me to take this case and that’s what we’re going to do,” he said, the paper reported.
On Friday, Ellison said he had “every expectation” that authorities also would file charges against the three other officers — but after officially taking over the case, he said he could not talk about the possibility of other charges.
“It’s just too early to discuss that,” he said.
Ellison also noted that it is not unprecedented for his office to take over cases for county attorneys’ offices, but the practice is more common in smaller counties.