Minneapolis Police Lt. Zimmerman: A knee on the neck is ‘deadly force’ 

An emotional week of testimony in the trial of Derek Chauvin continued Friday with Lt. Richard Zimmerman, the most senior officer in the Minneapolis Police Department, rejecting the former officer’s use of force against George Floyd, calling it “uncalled for” and “totally unnecessary.”

Zimmerman testified that once someone is handcuffed, “they are not a threat to you at that point” and the amount of force should be immediately reduced. “If your knee is on a person’s neck, that could kill him,” he testified.

His testimony came after former police supervisor David Pleoger said that Chauvin should have stopped kneeling on Floyd’s neck when he stopped resisting.

Zimmerman testified that the kind of actions taken by Chauvin go far beyond accepted police protocols.

A knee on the neck would be considered “the top tier” of force – “deadly force,” he said from the witness stand. “Because of the fact that if your knee is on a person’s neck, that can kill him.”

The threat that a suspect poses to an officer’s safety also drops significantly once they are handcuffed, Zimmerman said. The suspect’s safety at that point also becomes the officer’s responsibility, he said. “His well-being is your responsibility.”

“If they become less combative, you may just have him sit down on the curb. The idea is to calm the person down, and if they are not a threat to you at that point, you try to help them so that they’re not as upset as they may have been in the beginning,” he added.

One thing that officers learn about the effect of handcuffs, Zimmerman said, is that once an individual has had their hands cuffed behind their back, “it stretches the muscles back through your chest, and it makes it more difficult to breathe.”

“Once a person is cuffed, you need to turn them on their side or have them sit up. You need to get them off their chest,” he said. “Because of, as I mentioned earlier, your muscles are pulling back when you’re handcuffed, and when you’re laying on your chest, that’s restricting your breathing even more.”

Video evidence played during the trial has shown Chauvin and the three other officers holding Floyd facedown on the pavement as he cries out, his hands cuffed behind his back. Chauvin kneels on his neck, and another officer presses a knee into his back.

This story was originally published April 2, 2021 at 4:43 PM.