Chauvin was raised in St. Paul Park, a suburb of Minnesota which was, at the time, 96.6 percent white. Former classmates of the embattled cop recalled to the Wall Street Journal how he was once a ‘quiet and skinny’ boy was often bullied by more popular children
Derek Chauvin, the former Minnesota police officer charged with the second-degree murder of George Floyd, was an awkward loner at high school who failed to stand out from the crowd, a new report reveals.
Chauvin was raised in St. Paul Park, a suburb of Minnesota which was, at the time, 96.6 percent white. Former classmates of the embattled cop recalled to the Wall Street Journal how he was once a ‘quiet and skinny’ boy was often bullied by more popular children.
The now 44-year-old attended Park High School in Cottage Grove in the early 1990s before graduating in 1994. One of his classmates said Chauvin was teased for being ‘different’.
Chauvin’s ostracism was said to be spurred by his tendency to keep to himself and for his apparent disinterest in sports.
‘I remember the girls being the ones who would stick up for him in elementary school,’ one classmate told the outlet.
Another, Janille Stadt, said she often ate lunch with Chauvin at Park High, describing him as awkward but ‘not aggressive’, adding that many of the children chose not to talk to him.
Stadt remembers how she would often extend a proverbial olive branch to Chauvin, inviting him out on weekend group plans with other girls at the school, to which he would always decline.
Other classmates say the have a limited recollection of ever seeing Chauvin, particularly during his sophomore year. The school district lists him as a graduate of Park High, but isn’t photographed in the yearbook for his last two years, the Journal reported.
The now 44-year-old attended Park High School in Cottage Grove (above) in the early 1990s before graduating in 1994. One of his classmates said Chauvin was teased for being ‘different’. Chauvin’s ostracism was said to be spurred by his tendency to keep to himself and for his apparent dislike of sports
After his graduation in 1994, Chauvin remained in the Minneapolis area, starting his first job as a prep cook at a prime-rib buffet eatery called Tinucci’s Restaurant.
He earned a diploma in quantity food preparation from Dakota County Technical College, before taking a job as a line cook at a local McDonald’s.
During his time at the fast-food chain, Chauvin opted for a change in career trajectory, enrolling as a law enforcement major at Inver Hills Community College between 1995-1999.
He later transferred to Metropolitan State University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in law enforcement in May 2006, the Journal reported.
Alongside his studies, Chauvin also served in the Army Reserve as a military police officer between 1996 and 2004. As part of his training he spent a number of months working at a combat maneuver training center in Germany 1999.
A supervisor at the center, Jerry Obieglo, told the Journal that he remembers Chauvin as a ‘thin’ young man, who was always punctual and kept his uniform exceptionally clean.
According to Obieglo, Chauvin didn’t drink and spent all of his spare time studying, for what he believes may have been for a police academy exam, He said Chauvin would rarely socialize outside of work hours, but when he did, he volunteered to be the designated driver for trips to local bars.
In the two years prior to arriving in Germany, Chauvin worked as a protection officer for a security firm, previously called the Wackenhut Group.
Scott Gunderson who supervised Chauvin during that time frame says he has no memory of him.
‘What this means is he wasn’t an especially exceptional employee, or a problem employee,’ he told the Journal.
In October 2001, at aged 25, Chauvin became a police officer at the Minneapolis Police Department, spending the majority of his career with the department’s Third Precinct.
According to commissioner for the Minneapolis Police Conduct Oversight Commission, Abigail Cerra, the precinct has a long and well-documented history for aggressive policing tactics, particularly involving minorities and low-level crimes.
Cerra told the Journal that, over the years, the cited aggressive tactics have elicited countless complaints from citizens.
‘It’s just constant over-policing to the point of harassment for communities of color,’ Cerra said.
In October 2001, at aged 25, Chauvin became a police officer at the Minneapolis Police Department. Just under 19 years later, he would be arrested a charged with second-degree murder in relation to the arrest death of George Floyd
The precinct has a long and well-documented history for aggressive policing tactics, particularly involving minorities and low-level crimes(pictured: : Protestors stand and chant on top of a broken fence while the Minneapolis Police 3rd precinct burns behind them on May 28, 2020)
Chauvin received a number of medals from the department for his service. He also was reprimanded numerous times for alleged using a ‘demeaning tone’ and ‘derogatory language’, non-profit Communities United Against Police Brutality reported.
In total, Chauvin’s police file shows that he was the subject of 17 investigations regarding misconduct, prior to the Memorial Day death of Floyd.
All but one of the incidents were closed without disciplinary action being taken. In the one instance it was, dated August 2007, Chauvin was issued a letter of reprimand and notice of suspension.
The action was taken after a woman said she was pulled over by Chauvin for going ten miles over the speed limit. She says she was frisked and placed in the back of a police car.
An investigation later determined that Chauvin should’ve never removed the woman from her vehicle. He was also found to have left a microphone he was meant to be carrying on him at all times inside his squad car as he pulled her over.
The recording device was required to help provide a record of traffic stops in an effort to aid accountability and transparency. Chauvin was said to have failed to check the microphone was working at the start of his shift.
Chauvin was also involved in at least three shootings, the first of which came in October 2006.
In that incident, Chauvin was one of six officers from the Third Precinct involved in the fatal shooting of stabbing suspect Wayne Reyes, who pulled out a sawn-off shotgun and aimed it at police after making threats to kill two civilians.
Reyes was hit multiple times and died. A grand jury decided the use of force was justified.
Chauvin was later approved for a medal of valor for his ‘actions in the face of danger’.
Chauvin’s police file shows that he was the subject of 17 investigations regarding misconduct, prior to the Memorial Day death of Floyd
Two years later, Chauvin was involved in another shooting while responding to a domestic violence call involving Ira Latrell Toles.
Toles had been hiding in a bathroom when Chauvin arrived. He recalled for the Daily Beast last month how Chauvin broke down the bathroom door and began hitting him.
Toles, now 33, said he began fighting back against Chauvin in self-defense. Toles then reached for his gun, and Chauvin shot him twice in the stomach. He survived and was later charged with felony obstruction, pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count.
Chauvin was put on paid administrative leave pending an investigation, and ultimately returned to duty. He was again nominated for the medal of of valor, crediting his ‘great restraint and composure’.
Toles, meanwhile, told the Daily Beast that he ‘knew he would do something again.’
In 2011, Chauvin was placed on leave again with four other officers after they chased Leroy Martinez, a Native American man seen running with a pistol, before one of the officers shot him dead.
All of the officers were later cleared of any wrongdoing, with the police chief ruling the force used was justified and credited the officers’ ‘courage’.
A year earlier, Chauvin married beauty pageant queen Kellie Xiong, who moved to Minnesota from Southeast Asia when she was a child.
The former Ms. Minnesota winner met Chauvin while she was working at the Hennepin County Medical Center, when the officer brought in a suspect for medical evaluation.
‘Under all that uniform, he’s just a softie,’ Xiong told the St. Paul Pioneer Press in 2018.
Xiong would file for divorce just two years later – the same day Chauvin was arrested on murder charges relating to the death of George Floyd.
Kellie Chauvin (pictured), a former Mrs. Minnesota winner, has filed for divorce from her husband, Derek Chauvin, the same day he was charged with George Floyd’s murder
DailyMail.com has learned Chauvin’s wife Kellie was charged with writing a bad $42 check in February 2005. And despite multiple letters sent to her home about the bad check, she hadn’t paid the owed money by July of that year, leading to a criminal complaint being filed against her in Wisconsin
Kellie, who at the time was married to her late ex-husband Kujay Xiong, eventually paid the money and the case was dismissed
In addition to earning his real-estate license, Chauvin also moonlighted as a security guard for nearly 17 years at El Nuevo Rodeo, a bar around the block from the Third Precinct Station, owned by Maya Santamaria.
Santamaria has conflicting opinions of Chauvin as a worker. On the one hand, she remembers him being excellent at the administrative side of the job – such as scheduling shifts – however she said he often overreacted in tense situations.
Most of the purported overreactions were said to have taken place on Urban Night, an evening the bar put on tailored to the local African-American community.
The bar owner said Chauvin would often call for back-up from on-duty officers in situations where the escalation was seldom warranted.
She said his default method of action was to pepper spray any patrons who he deemed as acting out of line, a pattern of behavior that drove Santamaria ‘nuts’, she told the Journal.
Also working at El Nuevo Rodeo as a security guard was George Floyd, who on May 25, 2020, would take his final gasping breath under the knee of Officer Chauvin during his arrest for allegedly attempting to use a counterfeit $20 bill.
Santamaria confirmed last month that the two men had worked together in the years before the fatal incident, which has since stirred nationwide protests against police brutality and racism.
David Pinney, who worked with Floyd and Chauvin as a security guard at El Nuevo Rodeo in 2019 recently painted Chauvin as an ‘aggressive’ character.
Pinney revealed that prior to the fatal arrest, the men knew each other well and regularly ‘bumped heads’ when they were working together.
‘It has a lot to do with Derek being extremely aggressive within the club with some of the patrons, which was an issue,’ Pinney told CBS Evening News.
Also working at El Nuevo Rodeo as a security guard was George Floyd, who on May 25, 2020, would take his final gasping breath under the knee of Officer Chauvin during his arrest for allegedly attempting to use a counterfeit $20 bill
Prior to Floyd’s fatal arrest, the men knew each other well and regularly ‘bumped heads’ when they were working together
Pinney said that Chauvin likely knew who Floyd was when he arrested him on May 25.
On that fateful day, Floyd, who lived in a duplex in St. Louis Park with two roommates, had been shopping at Cup Foods, a small grocery store, when he crossed paths with Chauvin again.
In the weeks leading up to his death, Floyd was said to have found himself in a difficult position. Having turned his life around from his troubled past in Houston, Floyd confided in friends at a local recovery program that he was struggling with his sobriety.
Those struggles were said to have been compounded by the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent stay-at-home orders put in place in Minnesota, which suffocated most of his income as the several bars he worked the doors of as a security guard had been forced to shutter.
Floyd was allegedly, at some stage, sickened by the virus himself. He was also still grieving the passing of his mother, with Mother’s Day fast approaching and so too the late May anniversary of her death.
Just after 8pm on May 25, the clerk at Cup Foods accused an ‘awfully drunk’ Floyd of attempting to pay for his groceries with a fake $20 bill. It would later be determined that Floyd had fentanyl and methamphetamines in his system.
In the weeks leading up to his death, Floyd (seen left with friends) was said to have found himself in a difficult position. Having turned his life around from his troubled past in Houston, Floyd confided in friends at a recovery program that he was struggling with his sobriety
George Floyd was a high school basketball and football player at Jack Yates High School, in Houston
Floyd had been sitting inside his car when officers Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Keung arrived to arrest him. Lane pulled his weapon and pointed it towards Floyd’s window, ordering him to show his hands to which Floyd obliged, placing them on the steering wheel.
Lane then hauled Floyd from the car and handcuffed him. Following the officer’s direction, Floyd walked to the sidewalk and sat down on the ground.
On body camera footage of the arrest, Lane is heard asking for Floyd’s name and identification, before apparently noticing ‘foam’ at the edges of his mouth, to which Lane asked if he was ‘on something’, the Journal reported.
Floyd was then told he was under arrest for attempting to pass counterfeit currency. As Keung and Lane escorted him to their cruiser, Floyd fell to the ground. He told the two officers he wasn’t resisting arrest, but didn’t want to get into the squad car because he was claustrophobic.
Chauvin and officer Tou Thao then arrived on the scene in a separate police vehicle. As the four officer attempted to load Floyd into the back of the patrol car, Floyd told them he couldn’t breathe.
Chauvin then pulled a handcuffed Floyd back from the car, forcing him to fall facedown on the ground.
Keung then applied knees to Floyd’s back; Lane held his legs; Chauvin forced his left knee down onto Floyd’s neck.
After telling officers he was ‘about to die’, Floyd eventually lost consciousness and would never regain it
Floyd’s death has since stirred nationwide protests against police brutality and racism (pictured: Protesters gather outside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on May 29, 2020)
Over the next eight minutes and 46 seconds, Floyd cried out several times that he ‘couldn’t breathe’, pleaded with the officers to get off of him and even calling out for his late ‘Mama’ to help.
After telling officers he was ‘about to die’, Floyd eventually lost consciousness and would never regain it.
Minneapolis PD rookie, Thomas Lane, had asked Chauvin if he should roll Floyd onto his side to help him breathe better. Chauvin replied ‘No. Staying put where we got him’.
On Friday, May 29, Chauvin was arrested by police and the Hennepin County Attorney had charged him with third-degree murder. His charges were later upgraded to second-degree murder following intense national scrutiny and hundreds of protests in all 50 states.
The three other officers involved in the arrest of Floyd – Kueng, Lane and Thao – were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.