Derek Chauvin

Derek Michael Chauvin (born March 19, 1976) is a former police officer who murdered George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Chauvin was born in Oakdale, Minnesota, on March 19, 1976.

His mother was a housewife and his father was a certified public accountant.

During his early years, Chauvin grew up in West Saint Paul.

When he was seven, his parents divorced and were granted joint custody of him.

Chauvin attended Park High School in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, but did not finish and later obtained a GED certificate in 1994.

He earned a certificate in quantity food preparation at Dakota County Technical College and worked jobs as a prep cook at a McDonald's in Cottage Grove and later at a Tinucci's buffet restaurant in neighboring Newport.

During that time, he also attended Inver Hills Community College from 1995 to 1999, and later transferred to Metropolitan State University, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in law enforcement in 2006.

He served in the United States Army Reserve from 1996 to 2004, including two stints in the military police between 1996 and 2000 (first in Rochester, Minnesota, and later Hohenfels, Bavaria in Germany).

Chauvin applied to the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) in September 2000 and joined the MPD in 2001.

While on the force he was involved in three police shootings, one of which was fatal.

Chauvin was a member of the Minneapolis Police Department from 2001 to 2020.

In his career, Chauvin had 18 complaints against him in his official record and was involved in three police shootings, one of which was fatal.

He received two letters of reprimand for misconduct.

He received two medals of valor and two commendation medals during his career.

In early 2021, Chauvin was put on trial for unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter of Floyd before a jury in the Minnesota Fourth Judicial District Court.

On April 20, he was convicted on all of the charges.

On June 25, he was sentenced to 22 1⁄2 years in prison (with credit given for 199 days time served), with the possibility of supervised release after 15 years (two thirds of his sentence) contingent on factors such as good behavior.

Requests to the Minnesota Supreme Court and Supreme Court of the United States for review were denied.

Chauvin pleaded guilty in late 2021 to federal charges of violating Floyd's civil rights by using unreasonable force and ignoring Floyd's serious medical needs.

He received a medal for valor in 2006 for being one of several officers who fired 23 shots on Wayne Reyes who police said pointed a shotgun at them, and another in 2008 for a domestic violence incident in which he broke down a door and shot Ira Latrell Toles who reached for Chauvin's gun, according to police.

On October 29, 2006, Chauvin was one of a group of six officers who opened fire on Wayne Reyes, shooting 43 rounds in four seconds, killing him.

Police reported that he'd pulled out a shotgun when they stopped his vehicle responding to a report that he had stabbed his girlfriend and a friend and fled in his truck.

Reyes was a member of the Leech Lake Ojibwe Band.

The officers were placed on administrative leave for one week; a grand jury in 2007 decided against charging any of the officers, determining that the police use of force in the case was justified.

He received a commendation medal in 2008 after he and his partner tackled a fleeing suspect holding a pistol.

On May 24, 2008, Chauvin was responding to a domestic violence call about 21-year-old black man Ira Latrell Toles by the mother of his child.

In 2009, Chauvin received another commendation medal after working off duty as a security guard for a nightclub.

Chauvin had 18 complaints on his official record, two of which ended in discipline, specifically letters of reprimand.

Simultaneously, Chauvin pleaded guilty to violating a 14-year-old boy's civil rights in 2017 by using unreasonable force.

In mid-2022, Chauvin was sentenced to 21 years in prison for violating Floyd's civil rights.

The federal and state sentences are to run concurrently.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections lists Chauvin's anticipated release date on the state sentence as December 10, 2035.

For the federal charges, Chauvin will likely be released from prison in the year 2038.

Chauvin filed a motion in federal court in mid-November 2023 attempting to vacate his guilty plea.

After the conclusion of the criminal and civil rights cases, Chauvin was transferred in August 2022 from Oak Park Heights prison in Minnesota to FCI Tucson in Arizona, a medium-security federal facility, to serve his sentence.

He was stabbed by another inmate at the federal facility on November 24, 2023.

On May 25, 2020, Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down on the street, calling out "I can't breathe", during an arrest made with three other officers.

Chauvin was dismissed by the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) on May 26 and arrested on May 29.

The murder set off a series of protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul and across the rest of the United States, later spreading around the world.