George Floyd memorial service planned as police to appear in court

George Floyd will be remembered at a memorial service Thursday afternoon in Minneapolis, where he died at police hands last week. Civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton and family attorney Benjamin Crump are among the speakers.

At about the same time, three police officers who were at the scene when Floyd was killed are slated to make their first court appearance. The officer who kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes, Derek Chauvin, was charged Wednesday with an additional count of second-degree murder, on top of a third-degree murder charge. He’s scheduled to be in court Monday.

The three officers seen with him at the scene were charged Wednesday with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, and will appear in court Thursday.

Protests across the nation over Floyd’s death and racial injustice were mostly peaceful for the second straight day Wednesday.

Union head blames anti-police rhetoric after NYC cop stabbed in neck
A New York City police officer on an anti-looting patrol was ambushed Wednesday in Brooklyn by a man who walked up behind him and stabbed him in the neck, police said, setting off a struggle in which the assailant was shot and two other officers suffered gunshot injuries to their hands.

The bloodshed happened just before midnight in the hours after an 8 p.m. curfew that was intended to quell days of unrest over the death of George Floyd in Minnesota and looting that’s accompanied it.

All three injured officers were expected to recover. The man who attacked them was shot multiple times and was hospitalized in critical condition, said Police Commissioner Dermot Shea.

Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch blamed anti-police rhetoric during the protests.

“Are we surprised? Are we surprised we’re here in the hospital again. Did we doubt because of the rhetoric we’re hearing, the anti-police rhetoric that’s storming our streets, are we surprised that we got this call? I’m not. We said it’s going to happen,” he said.

Autopsy report shows Floyd had tested positive for COVID-19
A full autopsy of George Floyd provides several clinical details – including that Floyd had tested positive for COVID-19.

The 20-page report released Wednesday by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office came with the family’s permission and after the coroner’s office released summary findings Monday that Floyd had a heart attack while being restrained by officers, and classified his May 25 death as a homicide.

The report by Chief Medical Examiner Andrew Baker spelled out clinical details, including that Floyd tested positive for COVID-19 on April 3 but appeared asymptomatic. The report also noted Floyd’s lungs appeared healthy but he had some narrowing of arteries in the heart.