The Minneapolis cop, Derek Chauvin who spearheaded the killing of black man George Floyd by pinning him to the ground with his knees against his neck alongside 3 others has been identified as his former colleague at the El Nuevo Rodeo club on Lake Street, last year.
According to Maya Santamaria, the owner of the building “Chauvin was our off-duty police for almost the entirety of the 17 years that we were open, they were working together at the same time, it’s just that Chauvin worked outside and the security guards were inside”.
#GeorgeFloyd and the cop worked security at the same club at the same time.
— John ‘Murder Hornet’ Cardillo (@johncardillo) May 29, 2020
No intel on whether or not they knew each other as Floyd worked inside and Chauvin outside/off duty, but investigators will be all over this interviewing the employees.https://t.co/ZpMwgAghZG
Maya who owned the building for nearly two decades, but sold the venue within the last few months said “My friend sent me the video and said this is your guy who used to work for you and I said, ‘It’s not him but then they did the closeup and that’s when I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s him, I didn’t recognize George as one of our security guys because he looked really different lying there like that”.
Although the two overlapped working security on popular music nights within the last year, Maya can not say for certain they knew each other because there were often a couple dozen security guards, including off-duty officers.