A former employee of a nightclub where George Floyd and Derek Chauvin both worked security says the two men knew each other “pretty well,” and that they “bumped heads” over the former police officer’s treatment of some patrons while on the job.
What are the details?
Last month, Maya Santamaria, the former owner of the El Nuevo Rodeo club in south Minneapolis told ABC News affiliate KSTP-TV that Chauvin had worked for her in his off-duty hours as a Minneapolis police officer for 17 years, and that Floyd — the man Chauvin is accused of killing — worked overlapping shifts with Chauvin several times over the past year.
Santamaria said at the time that she did not know if the two men ever came in contact with one another on the job.
Now, another former El Nuevo Rodeo employee has come forward, who says Floyd and Chauvin not only knew each other, but that he remembers the two did not get along.
David Pinney told CBS News that Floyd and Chauvin “bumped heads,” and that their disagreements had “a lot to do with Derek being extremely aggressive within the club with some of the patrons, which was an issue.”
When asked by CBS News whether he had any doubt that the former police officer knew Floyd, Pinney replied, “No. He knew him,” adding that he believed Chauvin knew Floyd “pretty well.”
Derek Chauvin and George Floyd had history of not getting along, coworkers say
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Chauvin was arrested days after a video went viral showing him kneeling for nearly nine minutes on Floyd’s neck and refusing to adjust his position despite pleas from Floyd and onlookers. Floyd, who was being detained for allegedly attempting to use a fake $20 bill, became unresponsive during the time Chauvin held him down with his knee, and was later pronounced dead.
Chauvin was initially charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, and the murder charge was later upgraded to second-degree murder amid outcry.
Attorney for the Floyd family, Benjamin Crump, has been calling for charges against Chauvin to be upgraded again to first-degree murder, arguing that the period of time that Chauvin held Floyd down showed “an intentional will to do bodily harm.”
In a separate interview with CBS News that aired on May 31, Crump pointed to the fact that Chauvin and Floyd worked together as being another possible indication that the second-degree murder charge against the former officer was too light.
“They had an overlap,” the lawyer said. “And so that is going to be an interesting aspect to this case and hopefully upgrading these charges to first-degree murder because we believe he knew who George Floyd was.”