One of the four officers charged in the death of George Floyd told an angry shopper ‘I’m sorry you feel that way’ when she admonished him as he bought groceries while out on bail.
J. Alexander Keung, 26, on Saturday was shopping at a Cubs Food grocery store in Plymouth, Minnesota – just one day after he was released from the Hennepin County jail on $750,000 bail.
Keung was arrested earlier this month after standing by as former officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck as he yelled ‘I can’t breathe!’
A woman at the the grocery store spotted Keung and recorded the interaction on her cell phone.
Former Minneapolis Police Officer J. Alexander Keung (pictured) was confronted by a woman in a Cub Foods grocery store on Saturday after being released from jail
When the woman asks for Keung’s name, he responds ‘Oh, yeah that’s me.’
‘So it is you,’ the woman says. ‘So you’re out of prison and you’re comfortably shopping in Cub Foods as if you didn’t do anything?’
Keung, while holding a pack of Oreo, replies that he wouldn’t call it ‘comfortably’ and that he was stocking up on ‘necessities.’
‘I don’t think you should have that right,’ the woman says. ‘I don’t think you should be out on bail.’
Keung admits that ‘he can understand that’ before saying ‘I’m sorry you feel that way.’
This upset the woman, prompting her to chastise him as other residents continue to shop in the grocery store.
‘No you’re not sorry!’ she says. ‘You’re literally out here, comfortably as if you didn’t kill that man? Did you think people weren’t going to recognize you?’
Kueng is one of the three former Minneapolis police officers had have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter during the incident on May 25.
J. Alexander Kueng, 26, was released from Hennepin County jail shortly before 7.30pm on Friday
Kueng and former officer Thomas Lane, 37, were the first to respond to the call that a man – later said to be Floyd – had been trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a deli.
Kueng and Lane discovered Floyd sitting in a nearby car. They handcuffed him and attempted to put him inside their squad car.
Later, after the arrival of officers Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao, witness video shows Kueng holding onto Floyd’s back while he was lying in the street. Kueng then told the other officers that he ‘couldn’t find’ Floyd’s pulse.
Authorities said Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for about two minutes after Kueng’s statement.
According to charging documents, Lane – who initially took Floyd into custody – held down the father-of-five’s legs, while Kueng held his back and Chauvin knelt down on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.
During the arrest, Floyd pleaded for air and eventually stopped moving. He was handcuffed at the time.
In witness video released last week, a man and a woman are heard urging the officers to check Floyd’s pulse before more bystanders are heard pleading with the officers to help Floyd.
‘You think that’s okay? Check his pulse!’ a man is heard yelling as Thao argued with a woman nearby.
‘The ain’t moved yet bro,’ the man continued. ‘He has not moved not one time!’
Kueng can be seen here (left) with Floyd as he takes Floyd into custody on May 25
The man then asked Thao: ‘You’re going to let him kill that man in front of you?’
The woman then yelled: ‘Tell me what his pulse is right now!’ Another woman is heard asking in the background: ‘Did they just f**king kill him?’
As a crowd gathered, others are heard shouting, ‘Get off of his neck!’ and ‘He’s not moving!’
Despite their pleas for help, not once did Thao try to get Chauvin off Floyd’s neck.
Instead, he continued to argue with the witnesses, yelling for them to remain on the sidewalk and not come any closer.
A short time later, paramedics arrive and lift Floyd’s lifeless body off the pavement and onto a stretcher.
Police bodycam footage has not been made available to the public yet, because it is being investigated by the FBI.
Former police officers have said that the bodycam footage will ‘prove’ there was a struggle.
During a CNN interview, Lane’s attorney, Earl Gray said that ‘It wasn’t a violent resistance but it wasn’t a kind of non-resistance that an individual should do when police officers are arresting him.
He also noted: ‘He should get out of his vehicle and follow the orders of the police officers. He didn’t do that.’
Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter.
Derek Chauvin (left) is charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in relation to George Floyd’s (right) death, with his bail set at $1.25 million
Kueng’s attorneys said that he had been working on his third shift as a police officer when the incident occurred.
Thao remains behind bars, as does Chauvin, who was seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes as he lost consciousness and stopped breathing on Memorial Day.
Chauvin was fired from the Minneapolis Police Department and arrested after Floyd’s death. He was initially charged with third-degree murder before that charge was upgraded to second-degree murder.
Chauvin’s bail was set to $1.25million.
Chauvin, Kueng, Lane and Thao were all fired from the police department following Floyd’s death.
Immediately following Floyd’s death, Black Lives Matter protests erupted globally.
While the majority of protests remained peaceful, buildings, businesses and police departments have burned after some demonstrations turned violent in major US cities.
Protesters have not only demanded justice for Floyd, but they’ve called for justice for Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and most recently Rayshard Brooks. Demonstrators have also marched for Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot dead by a white man in Georgia in February.
Floyd was laid to rest June 9 in Houston, Texas.